^' 


--V  ^  /7  W^,^ 


V     -     -^ 


^. 


GENIUS 

IN 

SUNSHINE    AND    SHADOW. 


JSg  tj^c  Same  Slutfjor. 
— * — 

EDGE-TOOLS    OF    SPEECH. 

One  fine  octavo  volume.     $3-50. 


"  A  vast  storehouse  of  the  best  thought  of  the  world."  —  Boston  Home 
Journal. 

'*  Will  find  its  way  into  thousands  of  families.  It  is  a  volume  to  take  up 
when  a  few  minutes  of  leisure  are  found,  and  it  will  always  be  read  with  in- 
terest."—  Boston  Journal. 

**  '  Edge-Tools  of  Speech  *  is  one  of  the  best  books  of  quotation  in  the  lan- 
gpjage.     It  is  indispensable  in  the  library  and  at  the  office."  —  Gazette. 

*'  He  has  classified  his  quotations  alphabetically  under  the  head  of  subjects 
('Ability,'  *  Absence/  etc.),  and  has  collected  the  most  famous  literary  or  his- 
torical sayings  bearing  on  each  subject.  Thus  the  word  'Ability  '  is  made  the 
text  of  wise  utterances  from  Napoleon  I.,  Dr.  Johnson,  Wendell  Phillips,  Long- 
fellow, Maclaren,  Gail  Hamilton,  Froude,  Beaconsfield,  Zoroaster,  Schopen- 
hauer, La  Rochefoucauld,  Matthew  Wren,  Gibbon,  and  Aristotle.  It  has  no 
rival." — Christian  Union, 

•*  The  book  is  one  which  will  at  once  command  a  place  on  the  reference- 
shelf  of  every  well-appointed  library,  and  which  will  be  a  most  useful  aid  to 
every  literary  man."  —  Boston  Courier, 

•*  To  open  it  at  random  anywhere  is  to  chance  upon  the  wisdom  of  the  ages. 
Every  important  authority  of  every  age  and  clime  is  represented.  The  choicest 
reading  of  a  lifetime  is  Drought,  in  its  salient  points,  into  the  limits  of  this 
volume."  —  Boston  Traveller. 


V*  For  sale  by  all  booksellers.     Sent,  post-paid^  upon  receipt  of  price  ^ 

TICKNOR  AND  COMPANY,  Boston. 


^ENIUS 

IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW 


BY 


MATURIN   M.  ^ALLOU 

AUTHOR    OF    "edge-tools    OF    SPEECH,"   ETC. 


'Tis  in  books  the  chief 
Of  all  perfection  to  be  plain  and  brief. 

Butler 


BOSTON 

TICKNOR    AND    COMPANY 

1887 


Copyright,  1886, 
By  Maturin  M.  Ballou. 


All  rights  reserved. 


r. 


53ntbtTsitD  T^xm ; 
John  Wilson  and  Son,  Cambridge. 


PREFACE. 


The  volume  in  hand  might  perhaps  better  have 
been  entitled  "  Library  Notes,"  as  the  pages  are  liter- 
ally the  gathered  notes  of  the  author's  library-hours. 
The  reader  will  kindly  peruse  these  pages  remember- 
ing that  they  assume  only  to  be  the  gossip,  as  it  were, 
of  the  author  with  himself, — notes  which  have  grown 
to  these  proportions  by  casual  accumulation  in  the 
course  of  other  studies,  and  without  consecutive  pur- 
pose. That  these  notes  thus  made  have  been  put 
into  printed  form,  is  owing  to  the  publisher's  chance 
knowledge  and  hearty  approval  of  them.  These  few 
lines  are  by  way,  not  of  apology,  —  no  sensible  person 
ever  made  an  apology,  according  to  Mr.  Emerson, — 
but  of  introduction ;  so  that  the  reader  may  not  fancy 
he  is  to  encounter  a  labored  essay  upon  the  theme 
suggested  by  the  title  of  the  volume. 

These  pages  may  not  be  without  a  certain  whole- 
some influence,  if,  fortunately,  they  shall  incite  others 
to  analyze  the  character  of  genius  as  exhibited  by  the 
masters  of  art  and  literature.     The  facts  alluded  to, 


VI  PREFACE. 

though  familiar  to  many,  are  not  so  to  all ;  wherefore 
the  volume  may  indirectly  promote  the  knowledge 
of  both  history  and  biography,  at  the  same  time  lead- 
ing the  thoughtful  reader  to  seek  further  and  more 
ample  information  concerning  those  individuals  who 
are  here  so  briefly  introduced. 

M.  M.  B. 


GENIUS 

IN   SUNSHINE  AND   SHADOW. 


CHAPTER   I. 

The  ever-flowing  tide  of  time  rapidly  obliterates 
the  footprints  of  those  whom  the  world  has  delighted 
to  honor.  While  it  has  caused  heroic  names,  like 
their  possessors,  to  lapse  into  oblivion,  it  has  also 
shrouded  many  a  historical  page  with  the  softened 
veil  of  distance,  like  ivy-grown  towers,  rendering 
what  was  once  terrible  now  only  picturesque.  In 
glancing  back  through  thousands  of  years,  and  per- 
mitting the  mind  to  rest  on  the  earliest  recorded 
epochs,  one  is  apt  to  forget  how  much  human  life 
then,  in  all  its  fundamental  characteristics,  was  like 
our  own  daily  experience.  There  never  was  a  golden 
age ;  that  is  yet  to  come.  The  most  assiduous  anti- 
quarian has  only  corroborated  the  fact  that  human 
nature  is  unchanged.  Conventionalities,  manners  and 
customs,  the  fashions,  may  change,  but  human  nature 
does  not.  As  an  example  of  the  mutability  of  fame, 
we  have  only  to  ask  ourselves  what  is  actually  known 

1 


2  GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADO  W. 

to-day  of  Homer,^  Aristophanes,  and  their  renowned 
contemporaries,  or  even  of  our  more  familiar  Shaks- 
pearc  ?  ^  Of  the  existence  of  the  first  named  we  have 
evidence  in  his  two  great  epics,  the  Iliad  and  the 
Odyssey ;  but,  though  deemed  the  most  famous  poet 
that  ever  lived,  we  do  not  even  know  his  birthplace. 

"  Ten  ancient  towns  contend  for  Homer  dead, 
Through  which  the  living  Homer  begged  his  bread." 

The  cautious  historian  only  tells  us  that  he  is  sup- 
posed to  have  flourished  about  nine  hundred  years 
before  the  time  of  Christ ;  while  there  are  also  learned 
writers  who  contend  that  no  such  person  as  Homer ^ 
ever  lived,  and  who  attribute  the  two  most  famous 
poems  of  antiquity  to  various  minstrels  or  ballad- 
mongers,  who  celebrated  the  "  tale  of  Troy  divine  " 
at  various  periods,  and  whose  songs  and  legends  were 
fused  into  unity  at  the  time  of  Pisistratus. 

^  Goldsmith  makes  his  Chinese  philosopher  recount  the  name 
of  Homer  as  the  first  poet  and  beggar  among  the  ancients,  —  a 
blind  man  whose  mouth  was  more  frequently  filled  with  verses 
than  with  bread. 

2  Shakspeare's  line  expired  in  his  daughter's  only  daughter. 
Several  of  the  descendants  of  Shakspeare's  sister  Joan,  bearing  a 
strong  family  likeness  to  the  great  poet,  were,  so  late  as  1852, 
living  in  and  about  Stratford,  chiefly  in  a  state  of  indigence. 

^  I  have  no  doubt  whatever  that  Homer  is  a  mere  concrete 
name  for  the  rhapsodies  of  the  Iliad.  Of  course  there  was  a 
Homer,  and  twenty  besides.  I  will  engage  to  compile  twelve 
books,  with  characters  just  as  distinct  and  consistent  as  those  of 
the  Iliad,  from  the  metrical  ballads  and  other  chronicles  of  Eng- 
land, about  Arthur  and  the  Knights  of  the  Kound  Table. — 
Coleridge. 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.  3 

Over  the  personality  of  Aristophanes,^  the  great 
comic  poet  of  Greece,  who  is  supposed  to  have  flour- 
ished some  five  or  six  Imndred  years  later  than 
Homer,  there  rests  the  same  cloud  of  obscurity,  and 
he  is  clearly  identified  only  by  eleven  authentic  com- 
edies which  are  still  extant,  though  he  is  believed  to 
have  written  fifty.  Of  Shakspeare,  born  some  two 
thousand  years  later  (1564),  how  little  is  actually 
known  beyond  the  fact  of  his  birthplace !  Even  the 
authorship  of  his  plays,  like  that  of  Homer's  poems, 
is  a  subject  of  dispute.  Perhaps,  however,  this  loss 
of  individuality  but  adds  to  the  influence  of  the  poet's 
divine  mission.  The  really  great  men  of  history, 
benefactors  of  their  race,  are  those  who  still  live  in 
the  undying  thoughts  which  they  have  left  behind 
them. 

In  this  familiar  gossip  we  propose  to  glance  briefly 
at  such  names  as  may  suggest  themselves,  without 
observing  any  strict  system  of  classification.  The 
theme  is  so  fruitful,  the  pages  of  history  so  teem  with 
portraits  which  stand  forth  in  groups  to  attract  the 
eye,  that  one  hardly  knows  where  to  begin,  what  matter 
to  exclude,  what  to  adduce ;  and  therefore,  closing  the 
elaborate  records  of  the  past,  we  will  trust  to  momen- 
tary inspiration  and  the  ready  promptings  of  memory. 

The  first  thought  which  strikes  us  in  this  connec- 
tion is,  that  the  origin  of  those  whom  the  world  has 

^  They  must  needs  be  men  of  lofty  stature,  whose  shadows 
lengthen  out  to  remote  posterity.  —  Eazlitt. 


4  GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

called  great  —  men  who  have  written  their  names 
indelibly  upon  the  pages  of  history  —  is  often  of  the 
humblest  character.  Such  men  have  most  frequently 
risen  from  the  ranks.  In  fact,  genius  ignores  all  so- 
cial barriers  and  springs  forth  wherever  heaven  has 
dropped  the  seed.  The  grandest  characters  known 
in  art,  literature,  and  the  useful  inventions  have 
illustrated  the  axiom  that  "  brave  deeds  are  the 
ancestors  of  brave  men ; "  and  it  would  almost  ap- 
pear that  an  element  of  hardship  is  necessary  to 
the  effective  development  of  true  genius.  Indeed, 
when  we  come  to  the  highest  achievements  of  the 
greatest  minds,  it  seems  that  they  were  not  limited 
by  race,  condition  of  life,  or  the  circumstances  of 
their  age.  "  It  is,"  says  Emerson,  "  the  nature  of 
poetry  to  spring,  like  the  rainbow  daughter  of  Won- 
der, from  the  Invisible,  to  abolish  the  past  and  re- 
fuse all  history."  But  this  of  course  refers  only  to 
poetry  in  its  loftiest  and  noblest  conceptions  and 
sentiments ;  and  then  only  in  passages  of  a  great 
work. 

^sop,  the  fabulist,  who  flourished  six  hundred 
years  before  Christ,  and  whose  fables  are  as  familiar 
to  us  after  the  lapse  of  twenty-five  hundred  years  as 
household  words ;  Publius  Syrus,^  the  eminent  mor- 
alist, who  lived  in  the  time  of  Julius  Ceesar,  and 
whose  wise  axioms  are  to  be  found  in  every  library ; 

^  The  Edinburgli  "  Review,"  once  the  most  formidable  of  criti- 
cal journals,  took  its  motto  from  Publius  Syrus  :  — 

"  Judex  damnatur  cum  nocens  absolvetur." 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.  5 

Terence,^  the  Carthaginian  poet  and  dramatist  ; 
Epictetus,  the  stoic  philosopher,  —  all  were  slaves 
in  early  life ,2  but  won  freedom  and  lasting  fame  by- 
force  of  their  native  genius.  No  man  is  nobler  than 
another  unless  he  is  born  with  better  abilities,  a  more 
amiable  disposition,  and  a  larger  heart  and  brain. 
The  field  is  open  to  all ;  for  it  is  fixedness  of  pur- 
pose and  perseverance  that  win  the  prizes  of  this 
world,  —  qualities  that  can  be  exercised  by  the  most 
humble. 

Protagoras,  the  Greek  sophist  and  orator,  was  in 
his  youth  a  street  porter  of  Athens,  carrying  loads 
upon  his  back  like  a  beast  of  burden.  He  was  a 
singularly  independent  genius,  and  was  expelled 
from  his  native  city  because  he  openly  doubted  the 
existence  of  the  gods.  His  countryman,  Cleanthes 
the  stoic,  was  also  "  a  hewer  of  stone  and  drawer  of 
water,"  but  rose  among  the  Athenians  to  be  esteemed 
as  a  rival  of  the  great  philosopher  Zeno.     He  wrote 

^  The  kindly  human  sympathy  exhibited  by  Terence  con- 
tributed largely  to  the  popularity  of  his  dramas.  Whenever  the 
often-quoted  words,  "I  am  a  man  ;  and  I  have  an  interest  in 
everything  that  concerns  humanity,"  were  spoken  upon  the 
Roman  stage,  they  were  received  with  tumultuous  applause  by 
all  classes. 

"^  Crassus,  a  Roman  triumvir,  noted  for  his  great  wealth,  who 
lived  about  a  hundred  years  before  the  Christian  Era,  bought 
and  sold  slaves.  These  he  educated,  and  taught  the  highest  ac- 
complishments of  the  day,  sparing  no  labor  or  expense  for  the 
purpose.  These  educated  slaves  were  then  sold  for  large  sums 
of  money,  so  that  any  rich  man  could  own  his  private  poet  and 
scholar.  We  are  told  by  Plutarch  that  some  of  these  slaves  brought 
enormous  prices  into  the  treasury  of  Crassus. 


6  GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

many  works  in  his  day,  —  about  three  hundred  years 
before  the  Christian  Era,  —  none  of  which  have 
been  preserved  except  a  hymn  to  Jupiter,  which  is 
remarkable  for  purity  of  thought  and  elevation  of 
sentiment. 

We  need  not  confine  ourselves,  however,  to  so  re- 
mote a  period  to  illustrate  that  genius  is  independent 
of  circumstances.  In  our  random  treatment  of  the 
subject  there  occurs  to  us  the  name  of  Bandoccin,  one 
of  the  most  learned  men  of  the  sixteenth  century,  who 
was  the  son  of  an  itinerant  shoemaker,  and  who  was 
himself  brought  up  to  the  trade.  Gelli,  the  prolific 
Italian  author,  and  president  of  the  Florentine  Acad- 
emy, was  a  tailor  by  trade,  and  of  very  humble  birth. 
His  moral  dialogues  entitled,  /  Caprieci  del  Bot- 
tajo  ("The  Whims  of  the  Cooper"),  have  been  pro- 
nounced by  competent  critics  to  be  extraordinary  for 
originality  and  piquancy,  while  all  his  works  are  re- 
markable for  purity  of  diction.  Canova,  the  sculptor 
of  world-wide  fame,  was  the  son  of  a  day-laborer  in 
the  marble  quarries.  Opie,  the  distinguished  English 
painter,  earned  his  bread  at  the  carpenter's  trade 
until  his  majority,  but  before  his  death  became  pro- 
fessor of  painting  in  the  Royal  Academy.  Amyot, 
the  brilliant  scholar,  and  professor  of  Greek,  Hebrew, 
and  Latin,  who  is  ranked  among  those  who  have  con- 
tributed most  towards  the  perfection  of  the  French 
language,  learned  to  write  upon  birch-bark  with 
charcoal,  while  he  lived  on  a  loaf  of  bread  per  day. 
This  man  rose  to  be  grand  almoner  of  France,  and 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.  7 

proved  that  courage,  perseverance,  and  genius  need 
no  ancestors.^ 

Akenside,  the  English  didactic  poet,  wit,  essayist, 
and  physician,  author  of  the  "  Pleasures  of  the  Imagi- 
nation," was  a  butcher's  boy.  His  developed  genius 
caused  him  to  be  appointed  to  the  Queen's  household. 
Sir  Humphry  Davy  was  an  apothecary's  apprentice 
in  his  youth.  Matthew  Prior,  the  English  poet  and 
diplomatist,  began  life  as  a  charity  scholar.  Rollin, 
famous  for  his  "  Ancient  History,"  was  the  son  of  a 
poor  Parisian  cutler,  and  began  life  at  an  iron-forge. 
James  Barry,  the  eminent  historical  painter,  was 
in  his  minority  a  foremast  hand  on  board  an  Irish 
coasting-vessel.  D'Alembert,  the  remarkable  French 
mathematician,  author,  and  academician,  was  at  birth 
a  poor  foundling  in  the  streets  of  Paris,  though  it 
must  be  added  that  he  was  the  illegitimate  and  dis- 
carded son  of  Madame  de  Tencin,  one  of  the  wicked- 
est, most  profligate,  most  cynical,  and  ablest  of  the 
high-placed  women  of  France.  D'Alembert  scorned 
her  2  proffered  help  when  she,  learning  that  he  was  the 
offspring  of  one  of  her  desultory  amours,  attempted 
to  assist  him  by  her  money  and  patronage.  He  lived 
austerely  poor,  and  his  love  was  lavished,  not  on 
his  natural,  or  rather  unnatural,  mother,  but  on  the 

^  "  What  can  they  see  in  the  longest  kingly  line  in  Europe," 
asks  Sir  Walter  Scott,  "save  that  it  runs  back  to  a  successful 
soldier  1 " 

2  When  approached  by  Madame  de  Tencin,  who  was  finally 
eager  to  acknowledge  so  distinguished  a  son,  he  replied  :  — 
"  Je  ne  connais  qu'une  mere,  c'est  la  vitri^re." 


8  GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

indigent  woman  who  had  picked  him  up  in  the 
street,  and  who  by  self-denial  had  enabled  him  to 
obtain  sustenance  and  education.  As  soon  as  he 
was  old  enough  to  realize  his  true  situation,  he 
said,  "  I  have  no  name,  but  with  God's  help  I  will 
make  one ! "  The  time  came  when  Catherine  II.  of 
Russia  offered  him  one  hundred  thousand  francs  per 
annum  to  become  the  educator  of  her  son,  which  he 
declined. 

B^ranger,  the  lyric  poet  of  France,  whose  effective- 
ness and  purity  of  style  defy  criticism,  was  at  one 
time  a  barefooted  orphan  on  the  boulevards  of  the 
great  city.  His  verses,  bold,  patriotic,  and  satirical, 
were  in  every  mouth  among  the  masses  of  his  coun- 
trymen, contributing  more  than  any  other  cause  to 
produce  the  revolution  of  1830.^  He  had  the  noble 
independence  to  refuse  all  official  recognition  under 
government.  Rachel,  it  will  be  remembered,  was 
in  her  childhood  a  street-ballad  singer.  A  resident 
of  the  French  capital  once  pointed  out  to  the  writer 
a  spot  on  the  Champs  Elys^es  where  at  the  age  of 
twelve,  so  pale  as  to  seem  scarcely  more  than  a 
shadow,  she  used  to  appear  daily,  accompanied  by 
her  brother.  A  rude  cloth  was  spread  on  the  ground, 
upon  which  she  stood  and  recited  tragic  scenes  from 
Corneille  and  Racine,  or  sang  patriotic  songs  for 
pennies,  accompanied  upon  the  violin  by  her  brother. 

^  I  knew  a  very  wise  man  that  believed  if  a  man  were  per- 
mitted to  make  all  the  ballads,  he  need  not  care  who  should  make 
the  laws  of  a  nation.  — Andrew  Fletcher  of  Saltoun. 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.  9 

Her  attitudes,  gestures,  and  voice  always  captivated 
a  crowd  of  people.  Rachel  was  a  Jewish  pedler's 
daughter,  though  she  was  born  in  Switzerland ;  and 
in  these  youthful  days  she  wore  a  Swiss  costume  upon 
the  boulevards.^ 

Boccaccio,  the  most  famous  of  Italian  novelists,  was 
the  illegitimate  son  of  a  Florentine  tradesman,  and 
began  life  as  a  merchant's  clerk.  It  is  well  known 
that  Shakspeare  borrowed  the  plot  of  "  All 's  Well 
that  Ends  Well "  from  Boccaccio.^  In  fact,  the  "  De- 
camerone "  furnished  him  with  plots  for  several  of 

1  Rachel  made  her  debut  at  the  Theatre  Frangais  of  Paris, 
in  1838.  She  came  to  this  country  in  1855,  and  performed  in 
our  Eastern  cities.  Three  years  later  she  died  of  consumption, 
near  Cannes,  in  the  South  of  France.  When  she  was  giv- 
ing one  of  her  readings  before  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  she 
perceived  that  all  her  audience  were  ignorant  of  the  French 
language  except  the  Duke  himself.  She  went  on,  however, 
at  her  best,  consoling  herself  that  he  at  least  understood  her. 
After  it  was  over,  the  Duke  approached  the  great  actress,  and 
said  :  "  Mademoiselle,  our  guests  have  had  a  great  advantage  over 
me  ;  they  have  had  the  happiness  of  hearmg  you  :  I  am  as  deaf  as 
a  post." 

2  Hazlitt,  after  remarking  that  Shakspeare's  play  of  "  All 's 
Well  that  Ends  Well "  is  taken  from  Boccaccio,  adds  :  "  The 
poet  has  dramatized  the  original  novel  with  great  skill  and  comic 
spirit,  and  has  preserved  all  the  beauty  of  character  and  sentiment 
without  improving  upon  it,  which  is  impossible."  In  the  town 
of  Certaldo,  Tuscany,  the  house  in  which  Boccaccio  was  born  is 
shown  to  curious  travellers.  On  the  fagade  is  an  inscription 
speaking  of  the  small  house  and  a  name  which  filled  the  world. 
"Before  seven  years  of  age,"  says  Boccaccio,  "when  as  yet  I 
had  met  with  no  stories,  was  without  a  master,  and  hardly  knew 
my  letters,  I  had  a  natural  talent  for  fiction,  and  produced  some 
small  tales." 


10  GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

his  plays.  Chaucer  derived  from  the  same  source 
liis  poem  of  the  "  Knight's  Tale."  We  never  hear 
shallow  people  reflecting  upon  the  Bard  of  Avon  for 
taking  some  of  his  plots  from  earlier  writers,  and 
weaving  about  them  the  golden  threads  of  his  superb 
genius,  without  recalling  Dryden's  remark  relative  to 
Ben  Jonson's  adaptations  and  translations  from  the 
classics,  in  such  plays  as  "  Catiline  "  and  "  Sejanus." 
"  He  invades  authors,"  says  Dryden,  "  like  a  mon- 
arch ;  and  what  would  be  theft  in  other  writers  is  but 
victory  in  him."  Sterne's  idea  upon  the  same  subject 
also  suggests  itself.  "  As  monarchs  have  a  right,"  he 
says,  "  to  call  in  the  specie  of  a  State  and  raise  its 
value  by  their  own  impression,  so  are  there  cer- 
tain prerogative  geniuses  who  are  above  plagiaries, 
who  cannot  be  said  to  steal,  but  from  their  improve- 
ment of  a  thought,  rather  to  borrow  it,  and  repay 
the  commonwealth  of  letters  with  interest  again,  and 
may  more  properly  be  said  to  adopt  than  to  kidnap  a 
sentiment,  by  leaving  it  heir  to  their  own  fame." 

Columbus,  who  gave  a  new  world  to  the  old,  was  a 
weaver's  son,  and  in  his  youth  he  earned  his  bread 
as  a  cabin-boy  in  a  coasting-vessel  which  sailed  from 
Genoa.  The  story  of  the  great  Genoese  pilot  pos- 
sesses a  more  thrilling  interest  than  any  narrative 
which  the  imagination  of  poet  or  romancer  has  ever 
conceived.  His  name  flashes  a  bright  ray  over  the 
mental  darkness  of  the  period  in  which  he  lived.  In 
imagination  one  sees  him  wandering  for  years  from 
court  to  court,  begging  the  necessary  means  where- 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.  11 

with  to  prosecute  his  inspired  purpose,^  and  finally, 
after  successfully  accomplishing  his  mission,  languish- 
ing in  chains  and  in  prison. 

How  naturally  Halleck's  invocation  to  Death,  in 
"Marco  Bozarris,"  occurs  to  us  here,  as  the  hero, 
when  his  object  has  been  attained,  joyfully  faces  the 
grim  monarch  : 

"  Thy  grasp  is  welcome  as  the  hand 
Of  brother  in  a  foreign  land  ; 
Thy  summons  welcome  as  the  cry 
That  told  the  Indian  isles  were  nigh, 
To  the  world-seeking  Genoese, 
When  the  land  wind  from  woods  of  palm 
And  orange-gi'oves  and  fields  of  balm 
Blew  o'er  the  Haytian  seas." 

De  Foe,  the  author  of  "  Robinson  Crusoe,"  and  of 
over  two  hundred  other  books,  was  a  hosier  by  trade, 
the  son  of  a  London  butcher  named  James  Foe.  The 
particle  Be  was  added  by  the  son  without  other 
authority  than  the  suggestion  of  his  own  fancy. 
Cardinal  Wolsey  and  Kirke  White  were  also  sons  of 
butchers. 

Claude  Lorraine,  the  glorious  colorist,  whose  very 
name  has  become  a  synonym  in  art,  was  in  youth  em- 
ployed as  a  pastry-cook.  Moli^re,  the  great  French 
dramatist  and  actor,  who  presents  one  of  the  most 

^  The  author  has  stood  upon  the  Bridge  of  Pinos,  at  Granada, 
from  whence  Columbus,  discom'aged  and  nearly  heart-broken,  was 
recalled  by  Isabella,  after  having  been  denied  and  dismissed,  as 
he  supposed,  for  the  last  time.  The  messenger  of  the  relenting 
queen  overtook  the  great  pilot  at  the  bridge,  and  conducted  him 
back  to  the  Hall  of  the  Ambassadors,  in  the  Alhambra. 


12  GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

remarkable  instances  of  literary  success  known  to  his- 
tory, was  the  son  of  a  tapestry-maker,  and  was  himself 
at  one  time  apprenticed  to  a  tailor,  and  afterwards 
became  a  valet-de-chambre.  When  Moliere  was  valet  to 
Louis  XIII.,  he  had  already  appeared  upon  the  stage, 
and  was  rather  sneered  at  by  the  other  members  of 
the  king's  household.  The  generous  monarch  ob- 
served this,  and  determined  to  put  a  stop  to  it :  "I  am 
told  you  have  short  commons  here,  Moliere,  and  some 
of  my  people  decline  to  serve  you,"  said  Louis,  as  he 
rose  from  his  breakfast  one  day.  "  Sit  down  here  at 
my  table.  I  warrant  you  are  hungry."  And  the  king 
cut  him  a  portion  of  chicken  and  put  it  upon  his  plate 
just  at  the  moment  when  a  distinguished  member 
of  the  royal  household  entered.  "  You  see  me,"  said 
the  king,  "  giving  Moliere  his  breakfast,  as  some  of 
my  people  do  not  think  him  good  enough  company 
for  themselves."  From  that  hour  the  royal  valet 
was  treated  with  due  consideration.  William  Cob- 
bett,  the  English  author  and  vigorous  political  writer, 
was  a  poor  farmer's  boy  and  entirely  self-educated. 
Izaak  Walton,  the  delightful  biographist  and  miscel- 
laneous author,  whose  "  Complete  Angler  "  would 
make  any  man's  name  justly  famous,  was  for  years  a 
linen-draper  in  London.  Pope  and  Southey  were  the 
sons  of  linen-drapers. 

How  rapidly  instances  of  the  triumphs  of  genius 
over  circumstances  multiply  upon  us  when  the  mind 
is  permitted  to  roam  at  will  through  the  long  vista  of 
the  past !     Cervantes,  the  Spanish  Shakspeare,  whose 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.  13 

"Don  Quixote"  is  as  much  a  classic ^  as  "  Hamlet," 
was  a  common  foot-soldier  in  the  army  of  Castile. 
In  1575  he  was  captured  by  an  Algerine  corsair  and 
carried  as  a  slave  to  Algiers,  where  he  endured  the 
most  terrible  sufferings.  He  was  finally  ransomed  and 
returned  to  Spain.  Alexandre  Dumas's  grandmother 
was  an  African  slave.  Hugh  Miller,  author,  editor, 
poet,  distinguished  naturalist,  whose  clear,  choice 
Saxon-English  caused  the  Edinburgh  "  Review"  to  ask, 
"Where  could  this  man  have  acquired  his  style?"  was 
a  stone-mason,  and  his  only  college  was  a  stone-quarry .2 
Keats,  the  sweetest  of  English  poets,  whose  delicacy 
of  fancy  and  beauty  of  versification  are  "  a  joy  for- 
ever," was  born  in  a  stable.  Oliver  Cromwell,  one 
of   the  most  extraordinary  men  in  English   history, 

^  Disraeli  tells  us  that  the  French  ambassador  to  Spain,  meeting 
Cervantes,  congratulated  him  on  the  great  success  and  reputation 
gained  by  his  "  Don  Quixote ;  "  whereupon  the  author  whispered  in 
his  ear :  "  Had  it  not  been  for  the  Inquisition,  I  should  have  made 
my  book  much  more  entertaining."  When  Cervantes  was  a  cap- 
tive, and  in  prison  at  Algiers,  he  concerted  a  plan  to  free  himself 
and  his  comrades.  One  of  them  traitorously  betrayed  the  plot. 
They  were  all  conveyed  before  the  Dey  of  Algiers,  who  promised 
them  their  lives  if  they  would  betray  the  contriver  of  the  plot. 
"  I  was  that  person,"  replied  Cervantes  ;  "  save  my  companions, 
and  let  me  perish."  The  Dey,  struck  with  his  noble  confession, 
spared  his  life  and  permitted  them  all  to  be  ransomed. 

2  "  The  Testimony  of  the  Rocks,"  a  noble  and  monumental 
work,  by  Hugh  Miller,  was  published  in  1857.  The  night  follow- 
ing its  completion  its  author  shot  himself  through  the  heart.  The 
overworked  brain  had  given  out,  and  all  was  chaos.  He  had  sense 
enough  left  to  write  a  few  loving  lines  to  his  wife  and  children, 
and  to  say  farewell. 


14  GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

famous  as  a  citizen,  groat  as  a  general,  and  greatest 
as  a  ruler,  was  the  son  of  a  malt-brewer.  Howard, 
the  philanthropist  and  author,  whose  name  stands  a 
monument  of  Christian  fame,  was  at  first  a  grocer's 
boy.  Rossini,  one  of  the  greatest  of  modern  com- 
posers, was  the  son  of  an  itinerant  musician  and  a 
strolling  actress.  Andrea  del  Sarto  was  the  son  of  a 
tailor,  and  took  his  name  from  his  father's  trade.  Pe- 
rino  del  Vaga  was  born  in  poverty  and  nearly  starved 
in  his  boyhood.  Perugino,  whose  noble  painting  of  the 
"  Infant  Christ  and  the  Virgin  "  adorns  the  Albani 
Palace  at  Rome,  grew  up  in  want  and  misery.  We 
all  remember  the  story  of  the  shepherd-boy  Giotto, 
who  finally  came  to  be  so  eminent  a  painter,  and 
the  intimate  friend  of  Dante ;  like  Michael  Angelo, 
he  was  an  architect  and  sculptor.  Paganini,  one 
of  the  greatest  of  instrumental  performers  that  ever 
lived,  was  born  in  poverty  and  was  illegitimate.  He 
gained  enormous  sums  of  money  by  his  wonderful 
exhibitions  and  musical  compositions,  but  was  spoiled 
by  adulation,  becoming  reckless  and  dissipated.  His 
performances  in  the  cities  of  Europe  created  a  furore 
before  unparalleled  in  the  history  of  music,  and  never 
since  surpassed. 

Wilson  the  unequalled  ornithologist.  Dr.  Living- 
stone the  heroic  missionary  and  African  traveller, 
and  Tannahill  ^  the  Scottish  poet,  —  author   of  that 

1  Falling  into  a  state  of  morbid  despondency  and  mental  de- 
rangement, Tannahill  committed  suicide,  by  drowning,  in  his 
thirty-sixth  year.     James  Hogg,  the  "  Ettrick  Shepherd,"  visited 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.  15 

familiar  and  favorite  song,  "  Jessie,  the  Flower  of 
Dumblane,"  —  earned  their  living  in  youth  as  journey- 
men weavers.  Joost  van  den  Vondel,  the  national 
poet  of  Holland,  was  a  hosier's  apprentice.  Moliere, 
already  referred  to,  began  his  career  as  a  journeyman 
tailor,  but  occasionally  his  maternal  grandfather  took 
him  to  the  play,  and  thus  were  sown  the  seeds  which 
led  to  his  greatness  as  a  dramatic  author  and  actor. 
Samuel  Woodworth,  author  of  the  "  Old  Oaken 
Bucket,"  one  of  the  sweetest  lyrics  in  our  lan- 
guage, was  a  journeyman  printer.  Richard  Cobden, 
statesman,  economist,  and  author,  was  a  poor  Sussex 
farmer's  son,  whose  youthful  occupation  was  that  of 
tending  sheep.  John  Bright,  the  intimate  friend  and 
coadjutor  of  Cobden,  one  of  the  greatest,  most  elo- 
quent, and  most  successful  of  English  reformers,  was 
the  son  of  a  cotton-spinner.  Lord  Clyde,  the  success- 
ful general  who  crushed  the  rebellion  in  India,  and 
who  was  made  a  peer  of  England,  was  the  son  of  a 
carpenter.  The  motto  of  his  life,  always  inscribed 
upon  the  fly-leaf  of  his  pocket  memorandum-book, 
was :  "  By  means  of  patience,  common-sense,  and  time, 
impossibilities  become  possible." 

John  Bunyan,!  the  author  of  "  Pilgrim's  Progress," 
the  solace  and  delight  of  millions,  and  a  text-book  for 

him  a  short  time  before  his  death.  "  Farewell,"  said  Tannahill, 
as  he  grasped  his  brother  poet's  hand ;  "  we  shall  never  meet 
again  I " 

^  One  of  Bunyan's  biographers  tells  us  his  library  consisted  of 
two  books,  —  the  Bible  and  Fox's  "  Book  of  Martyrs."  The  latter 
work,  in  three  volumes,  is  preserved  in  the  Bedford  town  library, 


16  GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

all  future  time,  was  a  tinker.  His  great  work  is  said 
to  have  obtained  a  larger  circulation  than  any  other 
English  book  except  the  translation  of  the  Bible. 
Benjamin  Franklin,  statesman,  philosopher,  epigram- 
matist, was  a  tallow-chandler.i  Nathaniel  Bowditch, 
the  eminent  mathematician,  was  a  cooper's  apprentice. 
He  was  twenty-one  years  of  age  before  he  may  be  said 
to  have  begun  his  education,  but  in  his  prime  was 
a  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Society  of  London,  and  was 
offered  the  chair  of  mathematics  in  Harvard  College. 
Hiram  Powers,  the  first  sculptor  from  this  country  to 
win  European  fame,  was  brought  up  a  ploughboy  on  a 
Vermont  farm ;  his  "  Greek  Slave  "  gave  him  high  rank 
among  modern  sculptors.  Elihu  Burritt,  the  remark- 
able linguist,  was  a  Connecticut  horse-shoer.  White- 
field,  the  eloquent  English  preacher  and  father  of  the 

and  contains  Bunyan's  name  at  the  foot  of  the  titlepages  vrcit- 
ten  by  himself.  Bunyan's  crime,  for  which  he  was  imprisoned 
twelve  years,  was  teaching  plain  country  people  the  knowledge 
of  the  Scriptures  and  the  practice  of  virtue. 

^  Is  it  generally  known  that  among  the  accomplishments  of  his 
after  years  was  that  of  music  and  an  instrumental  performer  ? 
Leigh  Hunt  says  that  "  Dr.  Franklin  offered  to  teach  my  mother 
the  guitar,  but  she  was  too  bashful  to  become  his  pupil.  She 
regretted  this  afterwards,  possibly  from  having  missed  so  illustri- 
ous a  master.     Her  first  child,  who  died,  was  named  after  him." 

In  his  Autobiography  Franklin  says  :  "  At  ten  years  of  age  I 
was  called  home  to  assist  my  father  in  his  occupation,  which  was 
that  of  a  soap-boiler  and  tallow-chandler,  a  business  to  which  he 
had  served  no  apprenticeship,  but  which  he  embraced  on  his  ar- 
rival in  New  England,  because  he  found  his  own,  that  of  a  dyer, 
in  too  little  request.  I  was  accordingly  employed  in  cutting  the 
wicks,  filling  the  moulds,"  etc. 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.  17 

sect  of  Calvinistic  Methodists,  was  in  youth  the  stable- 
boy  of  an  English  inn.  Cardinal  Wolsey,  chief  min- 
ister of  Henry  VIII.,  was  brought  up  to  follow  his 
father's  humble  calling  of  a  butcher.  Home  Tooke, 
the  English  wit,  priest,  lawyer,  and  genius,  was  the 
son  of  a  poulterer.!  Correra,  afterwards  president  of 
Guatemala,  was  born  in  poverty,  and  for  years  was 
a  drummer-boy  in  the  army,  where  he  was  laughed 
at  for  saying  that  the  world  should  some  day  hear 
from  him,  being  reminded  that  his  present  business 
was  to  make  a  noise  in  the  world.  But  he  meant 
what  he  said,  and  acted  under  Lord  Clyde's  motto. 
He  rose  by  degrees  to  the  highest  position  in  the  gift 
of  his  countrymen.  "  To  the  persevering  mortal  the 
blessed  immortals  are  swift,"  says  Zoroaster. 

Ebenezer  Elliott,  the  English  "  Corn-Law  Rhymer,"^ 
was  a  blacksmith,  but  a  poet  by  nature,  and  his  songs 

^  His  original  name  was  John  Home,  but  being  adopted  and 
educated  by  William  Tooke,  he  assumed  his  name.  His  humble 
birth  being  suspected  by  the  proud  striplings  at  Eton,  when  he 
was  questioned  as  to  his  father  he  replied,  "  He  was  a  Turkey 
merchant ! "  He  was  imprisoned  for  a  year  because  he  said  that 
certain  Americans  were  "  murdered  "  by  the  king's  troops  at  Lex- 
ington ! 

2  Elliott,  the  Corn-Law  Rhymer,  was  no  pander  to  popu- 
lar cries  unless  they  were  founded  on  reason.  Being  asked, 
"  What  is  a  communist  ? "  he  answered,  "  One  who  has  yearn- 
ings for  equal  division  of  unequal  earnings.  Idler  or  bungler, 
he  is  Adlling  to  fork  out  his  penny  and  pocket  your  shilling." 
Whipple  says :  "  His  poetry  could  hardly  be  written  by  a  man 
who  was  not  physically  strong.  You  can  hear  the  ring  of  his 
anvil,  and  see  the  sparks  fly  off  from  his  furnace,  as  you  read 
his  verses." 

2 


18  GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

created  a  political  revolution  in  his  native  land, 
though  unlike  Beranger's,  in  Prance,  it  was  a  peaceful 
revolution.  He  was  ever  a  true  champion  of  the  poor 
and  oppressed.  In  the  latter  portion  of  his  life  he 
was  in  easy  pecuniary  circumstances.  William  Lloyd 
Garrison,^  the  beloved  philanthropist,  orator,  and 
writer,  was  born  in  poverty,  and  was  early  appren- 
ticed to  a  shoemaker,  but  became  a  journeyman 
printer  before  his  majority.  He  suffered  imprison- 
ment for  his  opinions'  sake,  and  may  be  said  to  have 
been  the  father  of  Abolitionism  in  America,  fortu- 
nately living  long  enough  to  see  the  grand  effort  of 
his  life  crowned  with  success,  in  the  emancipation  of 
the  blacks  and  the  abolishment  of  slavery  throughout 
the  length  and  breadth  of  his  native  land.  Kepler,  the 
famous  German  astronomer,  was  the  son  of  a  poor 
innkeeper,  and  though  enjoying  royal  patronage,  often 
felt  the  pressure  of  poverty.  Coleridge  said :  "  Galileo 
was  a  great  genius  and  so  was  Newton  ;  but  it  would 
take  two  or  three  Galileos  and  Newtons  to  make  one 
Kepler."  We  owe  our  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  the 
planetary  system  to  him. 

Sir  Richard  Arkwright,  inventor  of  the  spinning- 
jenny,  and  founder  of  the  great  cotton  industries  of 
England,  never  saw  the  inside  of  a  schoolhouse  until 
after  he  was  twenty  years  of  age,  having  long  served 

1  While  these  notes  are  writing,  the  city  of  Boston  is  erecting  a 
bronze  statue  to  the  memory  of  Garrison,  which  is  to  adorn  one 
of  its  finest  and  largest  public  parks,  —  a  fitting  tribute  to  the 
honored  philanthropist. 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.         19 

as  a  barber's  assistant.  Justice  Tenterdcn,  and 
Turner,  greatest  among  landscape-painters,  were  also 
brought  up  to  the  same  trade.  James  Brindley,  the 
English  engineer  and  mechanician,  and  Cook,  the 
famed  navigator,  were  day-laborers  in  early  life. 
Romney,  the  artist,  John  Hunter,  the  physiologist. 
Professor  Lee,  the  Orientalist,  and  John  Gibson, 
the  sculptor,  -were  carpenters  by  trade.  Shakspeare 
was  a  wool-comber  in  his  youth.  These  low  estates, 
the  workshop  and  the  mine,  have  often  contributed 
liberally  to  recruit  the  ranks  of  those  whom  the  world 
has  recognized  as  men  of  genius. 

Horace  Mann  declared  that  education  is  our  only 
political  safety.  He  might  have  gone  further,  and 
said  our  only  moral  safety  also.  It  is  not,  however, 
the  school  and  the  college  alone  that  bring  about  this 
grand  object,  though  they  are  natural  adjuncts.  Real 
education  is  the  apprenticeship  of  life,  and  that  is 
always  the  best  which  we  realize  in  our  struggle  to 
obtain  a  livelihood.  Genius,  as  a  rule,  owes  little  to 
scholastic  training,  —  within  these  pages  there  will  be 
found  proof  sufficient  of  this.  Sir  T.  F.  Buxton  says 
he  owed  more  to  his  father's  gamekeeper,  who  could 
neither  read  nor  write,  than  to  any  other  source  of 
knowledge.  He  said  this  man  was  truly  his  "  guide, 
philosopher,  and  friend,"  whose  memory  was  stored 
with  more  varied  rustic  knowledge,  good  sense,  and 
mother  wit,  than  his  young  master  ever  met  with 
afterwards.  He  adds  that  he  was  his  first  in- 
structor, and  that  he  profited  far  more  by  his  remarks 


20  GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

and  admonitions  than  by  those  of  his  more  learned 
tutors.^ 

Perhaps  at  first  thought  it  may  seem  singular  that 
so  many  unschooled  geniuses  should  have  risen  to  be 
famous  in  their  several  departments,  but  it  is  because 
they  were  geniuses.  They  saw  and  understood  nature 
and  art  by  intuition,  while  those  of  us  who  can  claim 
no  such  distinction  have  been  compelled  to  acquire 
knowledge  by  plummet  and  line,  so  to  speak.  "  The 
ambition  of  a  man  of  parts,"  says  Sydney  Smith, 
"  should  be  not  to  know  books,  but  things ;  not  to 
show  other  men  that  he  has  read  Locke,  and  Mon- 
tesquieu, and  Beccaria,  and  Dumont,  but  to  show  that 
he  knows  the  subjects  upon  which  they  have  written." 
Let  us  pursue  our  examples  still  further,  for  they  are 
both  interesting  and  remarkable  when  brought  thus 
together. 

Benjamin  West  ^  was  born  in  Pennsylvania,  a  poor 
farmer's  boy;  but  the  genius  of  art  was  in  him,  and 
after  patient  study  he  became  an  eminent  painter, 
finally  succeeding  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  as  president  of 

'  Hosea  Biglow's  words  are  specially  applicable  here  :  — 

"  An'  yit  I  love  th'  unhiglischooled  way 
or  farmers  hed  when  I  wuz  younger  ; 
Tlieir  talk  wuz  meatier,  an'  'ould  stay, 

While  book-froth  seems  to  whet  your  hunger." 

"  His  "Death  on  the  Pale  Horse,"  now  in  the  Academy  of 
Fine  Arts  at  Philadelphia,  is  the  most  remarkable  of  his  produc- 
tions in  this  country.  The  Pennsylvania  Hospital,  in  the  same 
city,  has  also  "  Christ  Healing  the  Sick,"  by  West,  —  a  truly 
noble  conception,  a  vigorous  work  of  art,  and  a  generous  gift  from 
the  author. 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.  21 

the  Royal  Academy  in  1792.  George  III.  was  his  per- 
sonal friend  and  patron.  He  was  so  thoroughly  appre- 
ciated there  that  he  made  England  his  home,  where  he 
died  in  1820.  John  Britton,  author  of  the  "  Beauties 
of  England  and  Wales,"  as  well  as  of  several  valuable 
works  on  architecture,  was  born  in  a  mud  cabin  in 
Wiltshire,  and  was  for  years  engaged  as  a  bar-tender. 
He  was  finally  turned  adrift  by  his  employer  with  two 
guineas  in  his  pocket,  but  before  his  death  his  list  of 
published  books  exceeded  eighty  volumes !  Sir  Fran- 
cis Chantrey,  the  eminent  sculptor,  was  in  his  minority 
a  journeyman  carver  in  wood.  Talma,  the  great 
tragic  actor  of  France,  and  favorite  of  the  first  Napo- 
leon, was  a  dentist  by  trade.  Gifford,  the  eminent 
English  critic  and  essayist,  was  "graduated"  from  a 
cobbler's  bench.  When  Cicero  was  asked  concerning 
his  lineage,  he  replied,  "  I  commence  an  ancestry." 
Beaumarchais,  the  successful  French  dramatist,  au- 
thor of  the  "  Barber  of  Seville  "  and  the  "  Marriage  of 
Figaro,"  was  a  watchmaker  by  trade,  but  developed 
such  versatile  genius  as  finally  to  excite  the  jealousy 
of  the  unscrupulous  Voltaire. 

Thomas  Ball,  the  sculptor,  who  has  done  so  much 
to  ornament  the  parks  and  squares  of  Boston,  used 
as  a  lad  to  sweep  out  the  halls  of  the  Boston  Mu- 
seum.^    The  author  has  often  been  within  the  walls 

1  His  old  employer,  Moses  Kimball,  paid  Ball  twenty  thou- 
sand dollars  for  the  bronze  group  now  standing  in  Park  Square. 
It  represents  President  Lincoln  Freeing  the  Slaves.  The  pur- 
chaser presented  it  to  the  city  of  Boston. 


22  GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

of  his  pleasant  studio  in  the  environs  of  Florence, 
adjoining  his  charming  domestic  establishment.  It  is 
near  to  the  spot  where  Powers  produced  his  "  Greek 
Slave,"  and  overlooks  the  lovely  city  of  Florence, 
divided  by  the  Arno.  Andrew  Jackson,  who  became 
President  of  the  United  States,  was  the  son  of  a  poor 
Irish  emigrant,  and  so  was  John  C.  Calhoun,  the 
great  Southern  statesman  and  Vice-President.  Abra- 
ham Lincoln  and  the  late  President  Garfield  were 
both,  sons  of  toil,  the  former  being  commonly  desig- 
nated as  "  the  rail-splitter,"  the  latter  as  "  the  canal- 
boy."  Andrew  Johnson  was  a  journeyman  tailor. 
Henry  Wilson  was  a  cobbler  at  the  bench  until  he 
was  nearly  twenty-one.  So  also  was  Andersen,^  the 
Danish  novelist.  Jasmin,  who  has  been  called  the 
Burns  of  France,  was  the  son  of  a  street  beggar. 
Allan  Cunningham,  poet,  novelist,  and  miscellaneous 
writer,  began  life  as  a  stone-mason;  he  became  the 
father  of  four  sons,  all  of  whom  won  distinction 
in  literature.  Among  the  father's  novels  was  that 
of  "  Paul  Jones,"  which  was  remarkably  successful. 
Dr.  Isaac  Miller,  Dean  of  Carlisle,  began  life  as 
a  weaver,  and  Dr.  Prideaux,  Bishop  of  Worcester, 
earned  his  living  in  youth  as  a  kitchen-boy  at  Oxford. 
Watt,  the  great  Scotch  inventor,  whose  steam-engine 
has   revolutionized   modern  industry,  and   Whitney, 

^  Hans  Christian  Andersen  was  one  of  the  most  gifted  of 
modern  authors.  In  his  story  entitled  "  Only  a  Fiddler,"  he  has 
given  many  striking  pictures  from  the  experience  of  his  own  life. 
His  best  books  are  his  fairy-tales,  of  which  he  has  published 
several  volumes. 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.  23 

inventor  of  the  cotton-gin,  were  street  gamins  in 
childhood.  Both  these  inventors  were  thought  by 
their  associates  to  be  "  beside  themselves  "  as  they 
grew  towards  maturity,  "  No  man  is  quite  sane," 
says  Emerson ;  "  each  has  a  vein  of  folly  in  his  com- 
position, a  slight  determination  of  blood  to  the  head, 
to  make  sure  of  holding  him  hard  to  some  one  point 
which  nature  has  taken  to  heart." 

The  world's  great  men,  according  to  the  acceptation 
of  the  term,  have  not  always  been  great  scholars. 
General  Nathaniel  Greene,  the  successful  Revolu- 
tionary commander,  second  only  in  military  skill  to 
Washing-ton,  was  brought  up  at  a  blacksmith's  forge. 
Horace  Greeley,  orator  and  journalist,  was  the  son  of 
a  poor  New  Hampshire  farmer  and  earned  his  living 
for  years  by  setting  type.  William  Sturgeon  the  able 
and  famous  electrician,  Samuel  Drew  the  English 
essayist,  and  Bloomfield  the  poet,  all  rose  from  the 
cobbler's  bench ;  and  so  did  Thomas  Edwards,  the  pro- 
found naturalist.  Robert  Dodsley,  the  poet,  drama- 
tist, and  friend  of  Pope  began  life  as  a  London 
footman  in  livery.  His  tragedy  of  "  Cleonc  "  was  so 
successful  and  well  constructed,  that  Dr.  Johnson 
said,  "  If  Otway  had  written  it,  no  other  of  his  pieces 
would  have  been  remembered,"  which  was  certainly 
extravagant  praise.^  Douglas  Jerrold  was  born  in 
a  garret  at  Sheerncss.     Hobson,  one   of  England's 

^  Any  one  who  could  place  the  tragedy  of  "  Cleone  "  hefore  that 
of  "  Venice  Preserved,"  by  Otway,  in  point  of  merit,  must  have 
been  singularly  prejudiced. 


24  GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

admirals,  was  a  tailor's  apprentice  in  early  life.  Hunt- 
ington, the  remarkable  preacher  and  revivalist,  was 
originally  a  coal-heaver,  and  Bewick,  the  father  of 
wood-engraving,  was  a  laborer  in  a  coal  mine  for 
many  years. 

John  Gay,  the  English  poet,  was  not  "  born  with  a 
silver  spoon  in  his  mouth,"  but  in  youth  he  came  up  to 
London,  where  he  served  as  a  clerk  to  a  silk-mercer. 
"  How  long  he  continued  behind  the  counter,"  says 
Dr.  Johnsoifj^^v"  or  with  what  degree  of  softness  and 
dexterity  he  received  and  accommodated  the  ladies, 
as  he  probably  took  no  delight  in  telling  it,  is  not 
known."  He  wrote  comedies,  fables,  farces,  and  bal- 
lads, and  wrote  well,  and  was  vastly  popular.  Gay 
was  a  great  gourmand,  very  lazy,  and  fond  of  society .1 
The  silk-mercer's  clerk  attained  the  much-coveted 
honor  of  resting  at  last  in  Westminster  Abbey. 
Boflfin,  the  great  navigator,  served  at  first  before 
the  mast  as  a  common  sailor.  Robert  Dick,  the 
geologist  and  botanist,  followed  his  trade  as  a  baker 
through  his  whole  life. 

Would  it  not  seem,  in  the  light  of  these  many  in- 
stances, that  practical  labor  forms  the  best  training 
even  for  genius  ? 

*  Thackeray  says  :  "  He  was  lazy,  kindly,  uncommonly  idle ; 
rather  slovenly,  forever  eating  and  saying  good  things.  A  little 
French  abbe  of  a  man,  sleek,  soft-handed,  and  soft-hearted." 
A  ]VIr.  Rich  was  the  manager  of  the  theatre  in  which  Gay's 
"  Beggar's  Opera "  was  brought  out.  Its  unprecedented  suc- 
cess suggested  the  epigram  that  "it  made  Bich  gay,  and  Gay 
rich." 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.  25 

Linnaeus  (Karl  von  Linn^),  the  great  Swedish  bot- 
anist, the  most  influential  naturalist  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  was  a  shoemaker's  apprentice.  His  works 
upon  his  favorite  study  are  authority  with  students  of 
science  all  over  the  world.  He  became  physician  to 
the  king  and  made  his  home  at  Stockholm,  but 
roamed  over  all  Scandinavia  in  pursuing  his  special 
science  of  botany  and  also  that  of  zoology.  He  will 
always  be  remembered  as  having  been  the  first  to 
perfect  a  systematic  and  scientific  classification  of 
plants  and  animals.  He  lies  buried  in  the  Upsala 
Cathedral. 

Thorwaldsen,  the  great  Danish  sculptor,  was  the 
son  of  an  humble  Icelajidic  fisherman,  but  by  reason 
of  native  genius  he  rose  to  bear  the  name  of  the 
greatest  of  modern  sculptors.  He  left  in  the  Copen- 
hagen museum  alone  six  hundred  grand  examples  of 
the  art  he  adorned.  Many  of  our  readers  will  remem- 
ber having  seen  near  Lucerne,  Switzerland,  one  of  his 
most  remarkable  pieces  of  sculpture,  representing  a 
wounded  and  dying  lion  of  colossal  size,  designed  to 
commemorate  the  heroic  fidelity  of  the  Swiss  guards 
who  fell  Aug.  10,  1792.  Thorwaldsen  was  passion- 
ately fond  of  children,  so  that  the  moment  he  entered 
a  house  he  gathered  all  the  juveniles  about  him  ;  and 
in  most  of  his  marble  groups  he  introduces  children. 
He  never  married,  but  made  his  beautiful  mistress, 
the  Roman  Fortunata,  celebrated  by  repeating  her 
face  in  many  of  his  ideal  groups.  Thorwaldsen  gave 
an  impulse  to  art  in  his  native  country  which  has 


26  GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

no  like  example  in  history ;  indeed,  art  is  to-day 
the  religion  of  Copenhagen,  and  Thorwaldsen  is  its 
prophet. 

George  Stephenson,  the  English  engineer  and  in- 
ventor, was  in  his  youth  a  stoker  in  a  colliery,  learn- 
ing to  read  and  write  at  a  laborers'  evening  school. 
John  Jacob  Astor  began  life  as  a  pedler  in  the 
streets  of  New  York,  where  his  descendants  own  a 
hundred  million  dollars  worth  of  real  estate.^  The 
elder  Vanderbilt,  famous  not  alone  for  his  millions 
but  also  for  his  vast  enterprise  in  the  development  of 
commerce  and  railroads,  served  as  a  cabin-boy  on  a 
North  River  sloop  during  several  years  of  his  youth. 
George  Peabody,  the  great  American  philanthropist 
and  millionnaire,  was  born  in  poverty.  Fisher  Ames, 
the  eminent  statesman  and  orator,  eked  out  a  preca- 
rious living  for  years  as  a  country  pedagogue.  Great- 
ness lies  not  alone  in  the  possession  of  genius,  but  in 
the  right  and  effective  use  of  it. 

We  have  given  examples  sufficient  to  illustrate  this 
branch  of  our  subject,  though  they  might  be  almost 
indefinitely  extended.     It  was  Daniel  Webster  2  who 

1  Among  his  liberal  bec[nests  were  four  hundred  thousand 
dollars  for  the  establishment  of  a  public  library  in  New  York, 
to  which  his  son,  William  B.  Astor,  subsequently  added  as  much 
more.  The  Astor  Library  is  therefore  one  of  the  best  endowed 
institutions  of  the  kind  in  America. 

2  Webster,  when  told  that  there  was  no  room  for  new  la-\vyers 
in  a  profession  already  overcrowded,  answered,  with  the  proud 
consciousness  of  genius  and  character,  "  There  is  always  room  at 
the  top." 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.         2T 

said  that  "  a  man  not  ashamed  of  himself- need  not  be 
ashamed  of  his  early  condition  in  life."  Titles  are 
vendible,  but  genius  is  the  gift  of  Heaven. 

Enthusiasm  is  the  heritage  of  youth  ;  it  plans  with 
audacity  and  executes  with  vigor :  "  It  is  the  leap- 
ing lightning,"  according  to  Emerson,  "  not  to  be 
measured  by  the  horse-power  of  the  understanding." 
In  the  accomplishment  of  great  deeds  it  is  undoubt- 
edly the  keenest  spur,  and  consequently  those  who 
have  become  eminent  in  the  history  of  the  world  have 
mostly  achieved  their  greatness  before  gray  hairs  have 
woven  themselves  about  their  brows.  Unless  the  tree 
has  borne  ample  blossoms  in  the  spring,  we  shall 
look  in  vain  for  a  generous  crop  in  the  fall.  Notwith- 
standing the  abundance  of  axioms  as  to  youth  and 
rashness  dwelling  together,  we  have  ample  evidence 
that  it  is  the  period  of  deeds,  when  the  senses  are  un- 
worn and  the  whole  man  is  in  the  vigor  of  strength 
and  earnestness.  Goethe  tells  us  that  the  destiny 
of  any  nation  depends  upon  the  opinions  of  its  young 
men.  Let  us  recall  a  few  examples,  in  corroboration 
of  this  view,  among  those  who  have  made  their  mark 
upon  the  times  in  which  they  lived. 

Alexander  the  Great  reigned  over  the  Macedonians 
at  sixteen ;  Scipio  was  but  twenty-nine  at  the  zenith 
of  his  military  glory  ;   Charles  XII.^  was  only  nine- 

^  Charles  XII.  put  his  whole  soul  into  the  cause  of  Sweden  at 
the  time  when  she  was  threatened  with  extinction  by  her  enemies. 
He  fought  all  Europe,  —  Danes,  Kussians,  Poles,  Germans,  —  and 
gave  away  a  kingdom  before  he  was  twenty.     At  his  coronation  at 


28  GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

teen  when,  as  commander-in-chief,  he  won  the  famous 
battle  of  Narva ;  Conde  was  twenty-two  when  he 
gained  the  battle  of  Rocroi ;  Scipio  the  Younger  con- 
quered Carthage  at  thirty-six,  and  Cortes  subdued 
Mexico  at  the  same  age.  At  thirty  Charlemagne  was 
master  of  France  and  Germany  ;  at  thirty-two  Clive 
had  established  the  British  power  in  India.  Hannibal 
won  his  greatest  victories  before  he  was  thirty,  and 
Napoleon  was  but  twenty-seven  when  he  outgeneralled 
the  veteran  marshals  of  Austria  on  the  plains  of  Italy. 
George  Washington  won  his  first  battle  as  a  colonel 
at  twenty-two ;  Lafayette  was  a  major-general  in  our 
army  at  the  age  of  twenty.  Nor  are  we  to  look  only 
for  youthful  greatness  among  those  who  have  won  lau- 
rels in  war.  William  Pitt  was  prime  minister  of  Eng- 
land at  twenty-four ;  Calhoun  had  achieved  national 
greatness  before  he  was  thirty ;  while  the  names  of 
John  Adams,  Alexander  Hamilton,  and  the  elder  Pitt  in 
England  also  suggest  themselves  in  this  connection.^ 

Upsala,  he  snatched  the  crown  from  the  hands  of  the  archbishop 

and  set  it  proudly  on  his  head  with  his  OAvn  hands. 

^  Whipple  speaks  of  three  characters  "  who  seem  to  have  been 
statesmen  from  the  nursery."  These  were  :  "  Octavius  Ca)sar, 
more  successful  in  the  arts  of  policy  than  even  the  great  Julius, 
never  guilty  of  youthful  indiscretion,  or,  we  are  sorry  to  say,  of 
youthful  virtue ;  Maurice  of  Saxony,  the  preserver  of  the  Re- 
formed religion  in  Germany,  in  that  memorable  contest  in  which 
his  youthful  sagacity  proved  more  than  a  match  for  the  veteran 
craft  of  Charles  V. ;  and  the  second  William  of  Orange,  the  pre- 
server of  the  liberties  of  Europe  against  the  ambition  of  Louis 
XIV.,  who,  as  a  child,  may  be  said  to  have  prattled  treaties  and 
lisped  despatches." 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.  29 

Handel  composed  sonatas  at  ten  years  of  age ;  Mo- 
zart was  equally  precocious,  and  died  at  thirty-six,  at 
■which  age  Shakspeare  had  written  "  Hamlet."  Bellini, 
the  composer,  had  produced  "  II  Pirata,"  "  La  Son- 
nambula,"  and  "  La  Norma,"  before  his  thirtieth  year; 
"  I  Puritani "  was  finished  at  thirty,  and  he  died  two 
years  later.  Charles  Matthews  the  elder  began  to 
write  for  the  press  at  fourteen,  and  Moore  wrote 
verses  for  print  at  the  same  age ;  undoubtedly  both 
were  open  to  cool  and  judicious  criticism.^  Henry 
Kirke  Wliite  published  a  volume  of  poems  at  seven- 
teen. Bryant,  the  first  American  poet  of  celebrity, 
began  to  write  verses  at  the  age  of  ten,  and  his  most 
celebrated  poem,  "  Thanatopsis,"  was  written  before 
he  was  twenty.  Fitz-Greene  Halleck,  author  of  "  Mar- 
co Bozzaris,"  wrote  verses  for  the  magazines  at  four- 
teen. Congreve  was  at  the  height  of  his  literary 
fame  at  four-and-twenty,  —  he  to  whom  Dryden  said 
Shakspeare  had  bequeathed  his  poetical  crown,  and 
to  whom  Pope  dedicated  his  version  of  the  Iliad. 
Watt  invented  the  steam-engine  before  he  was  thirty. 
The  reproof  administered  by  his  grandmother  for  his 
idleness  in  taking  off  and  replacing  the  cover  of  the 
teakettle,  and  "  playing  with  the  steam  to  no  pur- 
pose," will  occur  to  the  reader.  Joan  of  Arc  ^  was 
but  eighteen  when  she   raised  the    siege  of  Orliians 

1  Nothing  is  so  beneficial  to  a  young  author  as  the  advice  of  a 
man  whose  judgment  stands  constitutionally  at  the  freezing  point. 
—  Douglas  Jerrold. 

2  The  life  of  Jeanne  d'Arc  is  like  a  legend  in  the  midst  of  his- 
tory, —  Waller. 


30  GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

and  conquered  city  after  city,  until  Charles  YII.  was 
crowned  king  at  Rheims. 

Guizot,  the  distinguished  French  statesman  and 
historian,  seems  to  have  been  "  a  child  who  had 
no  childhood."  At  eleven  years  of  age  he  was 
able  to  read  in  their  respective  languages  Thucy- 
dides,  Demosthenes,  Dante,  Schiller,  Gibbon,  and 
Shakspeare. 

Robert  Hall,  the  eloquent  English  clergyman,  was  a 
remarkable  instance  of  early  mental  development. 
It  is  said  that  before  he  was  ten  years  of  age  he 
perused  with  interest  and  understanding  Edwards's 
treatises  on  the  "  Affections "  and  on  the  "  Will," 
His  sermons,  essays,  and  writings  generally  were 
eagerly  read  and  admired  by  the  public  ;  but  exces- 
sive application  at  last  brought  on  insanity.  It 
was  gracefully  said  of  him  that  his  imperial  fancy 
laid  all  nature  under  tribute.  Even  in  madness  he 
did  not  lose  his  power  of  retort.  A  hypocritical 
condoler  visited  him  in  the  madhouse,  and  asked  in 
a  servile  tone  :  "  Pray,  what  brought  you  here,  Mr. 
Hall  ?  "  Hall  touched  his  brow  significantly  with  his 
finger,  and  replied,  "  What  '11  never  bring  you,  sir, 
—  too  much  brains  !  "  ^ 

Macaulay  had  already  won  an  exalted  reputation 
for  prose  and  poetry  before  he  was  twenty-three,  and 
N.  P.  Willis,  before   he   left   college,    had    achieved 

1  After  a  couple  of  years  Hall  was  restored  to  the  full  posses- 
sion of  bis  faculties,  and  for  twenty  years  thereafter  maintained 
his  high  reputation  as  a  pulpit  orator.     He  died  in  1831. 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.         31 

enduring  fame  by  his  sacred  poems,^  which,  in  fact, 
he  never  afterwards  excelled  in  a  long  and  success- 
ful literary  career.  Schiller  wrote  and  published  in 
his  fourteenth  year  a  poem  on  Moses.  Klopstock 
began  his  "  Messiah "  at  seventeen,  and  Tasso  had 
produced  his  "  Rinaldo,"  and  completed  the  first  three 
cantos  of  "  Jerusalem  Delivered,"  before  he  was  nine- 
teen. Milton  was  an  unremitting  student  at  ten. 
Southey  began  to  write  verses  before  he  was  eleven, 
Chaucer  and  Cowley  at  twelve,  and  Leigh  Hunt  at 
about  the  same  age.  Pope,^  like  so  many  others, 
began  to  write  poetry  as  a  child,  thus  proving  that 
"  poets  are  born  and  not  made."  Chatterton,  the  re- 
markable literary  prodigy,  died  at  eighteen,  but  not 
until  he  had  established  a  lasting  reputation.  Bulwer- 
Lytton  was  a  successful  author  at  about  the  same  age, 
and  so  were  Keats  and  Bayard  Taylor.  Dickens 
produced  the  "  Pickwick  Papers "  before  he  was 
twenty-five,  and  it  may  safely  be  said  that  in  wit, 
humor,  and  originality  he  never  surpassed  that  deli- 
cious book.  These  seem  interesting  facts  to  remem- 
ber, though  they  do  not  establish  any  actual  criterion, 
since  the  thoughtful  student  of  the  past  can  adduce 

^  Fifty  years  after  these  poems  were  published,  as  we  are  in- 
formed by  the  publishers,  there  is  a  steady  demand  for  from  two 
to  three  hundred  copies  annually.  Of  how  many  American  books, 
of  a  similar  character,  can  this  be  said  ? 

2  I  ^\Tote  things,  I  'm  ashamed  to  say  how  soon.  Part  of  an 
epic  poem  when  about  twelve.  The  scene  of  it  lay  at  Rhodes  and 
some  of  the  neighboring  islands  ;  and  the  poem  opened  under 
water,  with  a  description  of  the  Court  of  Neptune.  —  Pope. 


32  GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

many  notable  examples   of  mature   development   in 
art  and  literature. 

Among  these  is  that  of  Edmund  Burke,  on  the  whole 
the  greatest  of  English  philosophical  statesmen.  He 
is  the  most  remarkable  instance  of  a  number  of  men  of 
genius  who  seem  to  have  grown  younger  as  they  grew 
older,  —  that  is,  mentally  and  morally.  Macaulay  has 
noticed  that  Bacon's  writings  towards  the  close  of  his 
career  exceeded  those  of  his  youth  and  manhood  "  in 
eloquence,  in  sweetness  and  variety  of  expression,  and 
in  richness  of  illustration."  ^  He  adds  :  "  In  this 
respect  the  history  of  his  mind  bears  some  resem- 
blance to  the  history  of  the  mind  of  Burke.  The 
treatises  on  the  '  Sublime  and  Beautiful,'  ^  though  writ- 

^  Lord  Brougham  hoped  to  see  the  day  when  every  man  in  the 
United  Kingdom  could  read  Bacon.  "  It  would  be  much  more 
to  the  purpose,"  said  Cobbett,  "if  his  lordship  could  use  his  in- 
fluence to  see  that  every  man  in  the  kingdom  could  eat  bacon." 

^  On  a  certain  occasion  when  Barry,  the  eminent  painter,  ex- 
hibited one  of  his  admirable  pictures,  some  one  present  doubted 
that  it  was  his  work,  so  remarkable  was  its  excellence,  and  Barry 
at  the  time  had  not  established  any  special  fame.  The  artist  was 
so  affected  by  the  remark  that  he  burst  into  tears  and  retired. 
Burke,  who  was  present,  followed  him  to  pacify  his  grief.  The 
painter  by  chance  quoted  some  passages  of  the  newly  published 
essay  on  the  "  Sublime  and  Beautiful."  It  appeared  anonymously, 
and  Burke  took  occasion  to  sneer  at  it,  when  Barry  showed  more 
feeling  than  he  had  done  about  his  picture.  He  commended  the 
essay  in  the  most  earnest  language.  Burke,  smiling,  acknowledged 
its  authorship.  "  I  could  not  afford  to  buy  it,"  replied  the  aston- 
ished artist,  "  but  I  transcribed  every  line  with  my  own  hands  ; "  at 
the  same  time  pulling  the  manuscript  from  his  pocket.  This  was 
commendation  so  sincere  and  appreciative,  that  the  great  author 
and  the  great  painter  clasped  hands  in  mutual  friendship. 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.  33 

ten  on  a  subject  which  the  coldest  metaphysician 
could  hardly  treat  without  being  occasionally  betrayed 
into  florid  writing,  is  the  most  unadorned  of  Burke's 
works.  It  appeared  when  he  was  twenty -five  or 
twenty-six.  When,  at  forty,  he  wrote  the  '  Thoughts 
on  the  Causes  of  the  Present  Discontents,'  his  reason 
and  judgment  had  reached  their  full  maturity,  but 
his  eloquence  was  in  its  splendid  dawn.  At  fifty  his 
rhetoric  was  as  rich  as  good  taste  would  admit ;  and 
when  he  died,  at  almost  seventy,  it  had  become  un- 
gracefully gorgeous.  In  his  youth  he  wrote  on  the 
emotions  produced  by  mountains  and  cascades,  by  the 
masterpieces  of  painting  and  sculpture,  by  the  faces 
and  necks  of  beautiful  women,  in  the  style  of  a 
Parliamentary  report.  In  his  old  age  he  discussed 
treaties  and  tariffs  in  the  most  fervid  and  brilliant 
language  of  romance." 

Socrates  learned  to  play  on  musical  instruments  in 
his  old  age.  Cato  at  eighty  first  studied  the  Greek 
language,  and  Plutarch  did  not  apply  himself  to  learn 
the  Latin  language  until  about  the  same  age.  Theo- 
phrastus  ^  began  his  "  Character  of  Man "  on  his 
ninetieth  birthday.  Peter  Rusard,  one  of  the  fathers 
of  French  poetry,  did  not  develop  his  poetic  faculty 
until  nearly  fifty.  Arnauld,  the  learned  French 
theologian  and  philosopher,  translated  Joseplms  in 
his  eightieth  year.  Lope  de  Vega,  one  of  the  most 
learned  men  of  the  sixteenth  century,  wrote  his  best 
at  seventy  years  of  age.     Dr.  Johnson  applied  himself 

^  Menander,  the  poet,  was  Theoplirastus's  favorite  pupil. 
3 


34  GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

to  learn  the  Dutch  language  at  seventy.  At  seventy- 
three,  when  quite  feeble,  he  composed  a  Latin  prayer 
to  test  to  his  own  satisfaction  the  loss  or  retention  of 
his  mental  faculties.  Chaucer's  "  Canterbury  Tales  " 
were  the  work  of  the  author's  last  years.  Franklin's 
philosophical  pursuits  were  but  fairly  begun  at  fifty. 
La  Mothe  le  Vayer's  best  treatises  were  written  af- 
ter he  was  eighty  years  of  age,  and  Izaak  Walton's 
when  he  was  nearly  ninety.  Thomas  Hobbes,  the 
remarkable  English  philosopher  and  author,  published 
his  version  of  the  Odyssey  in  his  eighty-seventh  year, 
and  his  Iliad  in  his  eighty-eighth.  Winckelmann,i 
author  of  the  "  History  of  Ancient  Art,"  lived  in 
ignorance  and  obscurity  until  the  prime  of  his  life, 
when  he  became  famous.  Landor  was  busy  with 
authorship  until  after  he  was  eighty.  The  Earl  of 
Chatham  made  his  most  remarkable  oratorical  effort 
at  seventy,  and  our  own  American  orator  and  states- 
man, Robert  C.  Winthrop,  at  a  still  later  period  of  his 
life.  Pontenelle  continued  his  literary  pursuits  until 
he  was  ninety-nine,  "  blossoming  in  the  winter  of  his 
days,"  as  Lord  Orrery  wrote  of  him.  Manage,  the 
celebrated  French  critic  and  scholar,  wrote  sonnets 
and  epigrams  at  ninety.  Julius  Scaliger,  the  re- 
nowned Italian  scholar  and  poet,  dictated  to  his  son, 

*  Winckelmann,  one  of  the  most  distinguished  writers  on 
classic  antiquities  and  the  fine  arts,  was  the  son  of  a  shoemaker. 
He  contrived,  by  submitting  to  all  sorts  of  personal  deprivation, 
to  fit  himself  for  college,  and  to  go  through  with  the  studies  there 
by  teaching  young  and  less  advanced  fellow-students,  at  the  same 
time  supporting  a  bedridden  and  helpless  father. 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.  35 

at  the  age  of  seventy,  two  hundred  verses  of  his  o-wn 
composition  from  memory.  Mr.  Gladstone  and  John 
Bright,  the  English  statesmen,  are  more  recent  ex- 
amples of  oratorical,  mental,  and  physical  powers  in 
advanced  years.  George  Bancroft  the  American  his- 
torian, in  his  eighty-sixth  year  is  still  engaged  in  au- 
thorship, and  Whittier  and  Holmes  are  writing  with 
unabated  vigor  at  nearly  eighty  years  of  age.  Miss 
Elizabeth  Peabody  at  eighty-four  is  still  a  vigorous 
writer  and  active  philanthropist,  and  the  same  may 
be  said  of  Mrs.  Julia  Ward  Howe  at  the  age  of  sixty- 
six.  Mrs.  Howe,  indeed,  is  one  of  the  foremost  of 
American  women,  whether  we  regard  the  ripeness  of 
her  scholarship,  the  breadth  of  her  understanding,  the 
richness  of  her  imagination,  or  the  quiet  intrepidity 
with  which  she  champions  great  reforms. 


CHAPTER   II. 

"Who  docs  not  enjoy  recalling  these  silent  friends, 
favorite  authors  grown  dear  to  us  by  age  and  long 
association  ?  Some  one  has  said  that  authors,  like 
coins,  grow  dearer  as  they  grow  old.  Indeed,  Samuel 
Rogers,  the  banker  and  poet,  declared  that  when 
friends  at  his  famous  "  breakfasts  "  were  praising  a 
new  book,  he  forthwith  began  to  re-read  an  old  one. 
All  these  writers  were  double-sided,  so  to  speak  ; 
they  had  their  book  natures  and  their  human  na- 
tures, and  it  is  when  we  prefer  to  contemplate  them 
in  the  latter  aspect  that  we  like  them  best.  Car- 
lyle  calls  them  "  the  vanguard  in  the  march  of 
mind,  the  intellectual  backwoodsmen  reclaiming  from 
the  idle  wilderness  new  territory  for  the  thought 
and  activity  of  their  happier  brethren."  It  is  true 
that  we  can  form  but  a  partial  judgment  of  authors 
by  their  books,  their  motives  being  not  always  as 
pure  as  we  are  inclined  to  believe.^  A  traitor  like 
Bolingbroke  is  quite  capable  of  writing  a  captivating 
book  on  patriotism ;  and  it  has  been  said  if  Satan  were 
to  write  one,  it  would  be  upon  the  advantages  of  virtue. 

^  "  People  may  be  taken  in  once,  who  imagine  that  an  author 
is  greater  in  private  life  than  other  men,"  says  Dr.  Johnson. 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.  37 

It  is  certain  he  has  ever  shown  such  a  hearty  appre- 
ciation of  virtue  that  he  holds  in  highest  estimation 
his  success  in  corrupting  it.  Examples  flash  across 
the  memory.  There  was  Sir  Thomas  More  advocat- 
ing toleration,  while  he  was  himself  a  fierce  perse- 
cutor ;  Sallust  declaring  against  the  licentiousness  of 
his  age,  yet  addicted  to  habitual  debaucheries  ;  Byron 
assuming  a  misanthropy  which  he  never  felt;  and 
Cowley  boasting  of  his  mistresses,  though  he  had  not 
the  courage  even  to  address  one.  Smollett's  descrip- 
tions and  scenes  were  often  indelicate,  though  he  was 
himself  in  that  respect  a  faultless  man.  "  As  a  rule, 
the  author  who  is  not  in  genius  far  above  his  produc- 
tions must  be  a  second-rate  one  at  best,"  says  Bul- 
wer-Lytton.  Sometimes  we  detect  striking  likenesses 
between  the  author  and  his  works.  Goldsmith,  for  in- 
stance, was  the  same  hero  to  low-bred  women,  and  the 
same  coward  to  ladies,  that  he  depicts  in  his  charm- 
ing comedy.  It  is  difficult,  however,  in  the  light  of 
Handel's  inspired  music,  to  realize  what  an  animal 
nature  possessed  him  in  his  every-day  mood,  —  what 
a  glutton  he  was  at  table  ;  or  to  reconcile  the  sublime 
strains  of  Mozart  with  his  trivial  personality.^  Still, 
Buffon  persistently  declares,"  Le  style  c'est  I'homme." 

^  Such  incongruities  do  exist  :  nothing  is  infallible  ;  phrenolo- 
gists even  find  the  crania  of  some  men  to  exhibit  contradictory 
evidences.  When  Sydney  Smith  with  some  friends  submitted  his 
head  to  be  examined  by  a  phrenologist  who  did  not  know  him,  the 
party  were  amused  at  the  examiner  declaring  him  to  be  a  great 
naturalist,  —  "  never  happier  than  when  arranging  his  birds  and 
fishes."  "Sir,''  said  the  divine,  "I  don't  know  a  fish  from  a  birdl" 


38  GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

Addison,  recognized  as  the  purest  and  most  perspic- 
uous writer  of  the  English  language,  though  exer- 
cising such  mastership  of  the  pen,  had  no  oral 
ability,  and  rarely  attempted  to  talk  in  social  circles. 
He  said  of  himself  that  though  he  had  a  hundred 
pounds  in  the  bank,  he  had  no  small  coin  in  his 
pocket.^ 

Dr.  Johnson  and  Coleridge  were  famous  for  their 
colloquial  facility,  but  both  of  these  were  rather  lec- 
turers than  talkers,  however  delightful  in  this  respect 
the  latter  may  have  been.  Johnson  during  his  life 
was  undoubtedly  more  of  a  power  as  a  talker  than  as 
a  writer.  It  has  been  said  that  Scott  talked  more 
poetry  and  Edmund  Burke  more  eloquence  than  they 
ever  wrote.  Emerson  thought  that  "  better  things  are 
said,  more  incisive,  more  wit  and  insight  are  dropped 
in  talk  and  forgotten,  than  gets  into  books."  E.  H. 
Chapin  and  H.  W.  Beecher  have  talked  sounder  and 
more  brilliant  theology  than  they  ever  preached  from 
the  pulpit.  Spontaneous  thoughts  come  from  our 
inner  consciousness ;  sermons  and  essays,  from  the 
cooler  action  of  the  brain.  Coleridge,  on  first  meeting 
Byron,  entertained  the  poet  with  one  of  his  monologues, 
wherein  he  ascended  into  the  seventh  heaven  upon 
wings  of  theology  and  metaphysics.  Leigh  Hunt  de- 
scribed the  scene  to  Charles  Lamb,  and  expressed  his 
wonder  that  Coleridge  should  have  chosen  so  unsym- 

^  "  Men  of  genius,"  says  Longfellow,  "  are  often  dull  and  inert 
in  society ;  as  the  blazing  meteor,  when  it  descends  to  earth,  is 
only  a  stone." 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.         39 

pathetic  an  auditor.  "  Oh,  it  was  only  his  fun,"  ex- 
plained Lamb ;  "  there 's  an  immense  deal  of  quiet 
humor  about  Coleridge  !  "  Wordsworth  speaks  of  him 
as  the  "  rapt  one,  with  the  godlike  forehead,"  the 
"  heaven-eyed  creature."  Hazlitt  says  that  "  no  idea 
ever  entered  the  mind  of  man,  but  at  some  period  or 
other  it  had  passed  over  his  head  with  rustling  pin- 
ions." Talfourd  writes  of  seeing  "  the  palm-trees 
wave,  and  the  pyramids  tower,  in  the  long  perspective 
of  his  style."  When  Coleridge  once  asked  Lamb, 
"  Charles,  did  you  ever  hear  me  preach  ? "  he  received 
the  quiet  reply,  "  I  never  heard  you  do  anything  else." 
Rogers  tells  us  :  "  Coleridge  was  a  marvellous  talker. 
One  morning,  when  Hookham  Frere  also  breakfasted 
with  me,  Coleridge  talked  for  three  hours  without 
intermission  about  poetry,  and  so  admirably  that  I 
wish  every  word  he  uttered  had  been  written  down." 
Madame  de  Stael  said  of  him  that  he  was  great  in 
monologue,  but  that  he  had  no  idea  of  dialogue. 

Macaulay  was  also  remarkable  for  his  conversa- 
tional powers,  which  were  greatly  aided  by  an  excel- 
lent memory.  He  has  been  accused  of  talking  too 
much  ;  and  Sydney  Smith  one  said  of  him :  "  He  is 
certainly  more  agreeable  since  his  return  from  India. 
His  enemies  might  perhaps  have  said  before  —  though 
I  never  did  so  —  that  he  talked  rather  too  much  ;  but 
now  he  has  occasional  flashes  of  silence  that  make 
his  conversation  perfectly  delightful !  "  In  a  party  in 
which  eminent  men  are  present,  the  rule  is  said  to 
be  that,  for  good  conversation,  the  number  of  talkers 


40  GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

should  never  be  fewer  than  the  Graces  or  more  than 
the  Muses.  Goldsmith,  who  wrote  so  charmingly  and 
exhibited  such  a  remarkable  versatility  with  the  pen, 
could  make  no  figure  in  conversation.  Fox,  Bentley, 
Burke,  Curran,  and  Swift  were  all  brilliant  talkers ; 
Tasso,  Dante,  Gray,  and  Dryden  ^  were  all  taciturn. 
Of  Ben  Jonson  it  is  said  that  he  was  mostly  without 
speech,  sitting  by  the  hour  quite  silent  in  society,  suck- 
ing in  the  wine  and  humor  of  his  companions. 

Sheridan  liad  the  reputation  of  being  a  brilliant 
conversationalist ;  but  we  all  know  that  many  of  his 
"  impromptus  "  were  laboriously  prepared  beforehand, 
and  that  he  was  wont  to  lie  in  wait  silently  for  half 
an  evening  watching  his  opportunity  to  discharge  the 
arrows  of  his  polished  wit.  One  would  be  glad  to 
learn  how  it  was  with  Shakspeare  in  society.  He  could 
hold  his  own  in  a  controversy,  however,  as  Thomas 
Fuller,  in  his  "  Worthies  of  England,"  says,  "  Many 
were  the  wet-combats  between  him  and  Ben  Jonson :  ^ 

1  Dryden  said  of  himself  :  "  My  conversation  is  slow  and 
dull,  my  humor  saturnine  and  reserved.  In  short,  I  am  none  of 
these  who  endeavor  to  break  jests  in  company,  or  make  repartees." 
And  yet  at  Will's  Coffee-House,  where  the  wits  of  the  town  met, 
his  chair  in  winter  was  always  in  the  warmest  nook  by  the  fire, 
and  in  summer  was  placed  in  the  balcony.  "  To  bow  to  him,  and  to 
hear  his  opinion  of  Racine's  last  tragedy  or  of  Bossuet's  treatise  on 
epic  poetry  was  thought  a  privilege.  A  pinch  from  his  snuff-box 
was  an  honor  sufficient  to  turn  the  head  of  a  young  enthusiast." 
Every  one  must  remember  how,  in  Scott's  novel  of  the  "  Pirate," 
Claud  Halcro  is  continually  boasting  of  having  obtained  at  least 
that  honor  from  "Glorious  John." 

^  Jonson  was  a  bricklayer,  like  his  father  before  him.  "  Let 
them  blush  not  that  have,  but  those  who  have  not,  a  lawful  call- 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.  41 

which  two  I  behold  like  a  Spanish  great  galleon 
and  an  English  man-of-war ;  master  Jonson,  like  the 
former,  was  built  far  higher  in  learning ;  solid,  but 
slow,  in  his  performances.  Shakspeare,  like  the  Eng- 
lish man-of-war,  lesser  in  bulk  but  lighter  in  sailing, 
could  turn  with  all  tides,  tack  about,  and  take  advan- 
tage of  all  winds  by  the  quickness  of  his  wit  and  in- 
vention." Shakspeare  himself  has  said,  "  Silence  is 
only  commendable  in  a  neat's  tongue  dried  and  a 
maid  not  vendible  ; "  but  the  ancient  stoics  thought 
that  by  silence  they  heard  other  men's  imperfections 
and  concealed  their  own. 

The  diplomatist  Metternich  said  he  had  never  known 
more  than  ten  or  twelve  persons  with  whom  it  was 
pleasant  to  converse.  Margaret  Fuller  said  Carlyle's 
talk  was  an  amazement  to  her,  though  she  was  fa- 
miliar with  his  writings.  His  conversation,  she  de- 
clared, was  a  splendor  scarcely  to  be  faced  with  steady 
eye.  He  did  not  converse  —  only  harangued.  She 
thought  him  "  arrogant  and  overbearing,  but  it  was  not 
the  arrogance  of  littleness,  nor  self-love,  but  rather 
the  arrogance  of  some  old  Scandinavian  conqueror; 
it  was  his  nature,  the  untamable  impulse  that  had 
given  him  power  to  crush  the  dragons.  She  was  not  led 
to  love  or  revere  him,  but  liked  him  heartily,  —  liked 

ing,"  says  Thomas  Fuller  as  he  records  this  fact ;  and  goes  on  to 
say  that  "  Jonson  helped  in  the  construction  of  Lincoln's  Inn, 
with  a  trowel  in  his  hand  and  a  hook  in  his  pocket.  Some  gen- 
tlemen pitying  that  his  parts  should  be  buried  under  the  rubbish 
of  so  mean  a  calling,  did  by  their  bounty  manumise  him  freely  to 
follow  his  own  ingenious  inclinations." 


42  GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

to  see  him  the  powerful  smith,  the  Siegfried,  melting 
all  the  old  iron  in  his  furnace  till  it  glows  to  a  sunset 
red  and  burns  you,  if  you  senselessly  go  too  near."  ^ 

When  Dr.  Johnson  was  asked  why  he  was  not  in- 
vited out  to  dine  as  Garrick  ^  was,  he  answered,  as  if 
it  was  a  great  triumph  to  him,  "  Because  great 
lords  and  ladies  don't  like  to  have  their  mouths 
stopped  !  "  He  indulged  a  furious  hatred  to  Ameri- 
cans, and  whenever  there  was  an  opportunity  sneered  at 
them  even  more  bitterly  than  he  did  at  Scotchmen.  It 
will  be  remembered  that  he  thought  something  could  be 
made  out  of  a  Scotchman  "  if  you  caught  him  young ; " 
but  he  would  not  admit  even  this  saving  clause  as 
regarded  Americans.  He  said,  "  I  am  willing  to  love 
all,  all  mankind,  except  an  American."  He  called 
them  "  robbers  and  pirates  ;  "  adding,  "  I  'd  burn  and 
destroy  them ! " 

These  words  were  addressed  to  Miss  Anna  Seward, 
of  Lichfield.  It  was  in  the  grammar  school  of  this 
ancient  cathedral  town  that  Addison,  Dr.  Johnson, 

^  Margaret  Fuller  by  marriage  became  the  Marchioness  of 
Ossoli,  and  with  her  husband  and  child  perished  in  the  wreck  of 
the  brig  "  Elizabeth,"  from  Leghorn,  near  Fire  Island,  in  1850. 
She  was  one  of  the  most  gifted  literary  women  of  America. 

^  Garrick  was  so  popular  that  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  re- 
spond to  half  the  social  invitations  which  he  received  from  the 
nobility.  Even  royalty  itself  honored  him  by  private  interviews, 
often  listening  to  his  readings  in  the  domestic  circle  of  the  palace. 
Though  he  was  always  rewarded  by  the  hearty  approval  of  the 
king  and  queen,  he  said  its  effect  upon  him  was  like  a  "wet 
blanket "  compared  with  the  thimders  of  applause  which  he  usually 
received  in  public. 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.  43 

and  Garrick  received  their  early  education,  and  John- 
son was  a  native  of  the  place.  Miss  Seward's  father 
was  the  canon  resident  of  Lichfield  Cathedral.  In 
his  family  there  was  a  beautiful  young  lady  named 
Honora  Sneyd,  a  companion  to  his  daughter.  John 
Andr^,  a  cultured  London  youth,  fell  in  love  with 
Honora,  and  was  tacitly  accepted.  The  young  man 
was  somewhat  suddenly  called  back  to  the  metropo- 
lis on  business,  and  a  separation  thus  ensued  which 
seemed  to  wean  the  lady's  affections  from  him,  so  that 
she  soon  after  married  a  Mr.  Edgeworth  and  in  the 
course  of  time  became  the  mother  of  Maria  Edgeworth, 
the  well-known  novel-writer.^  John  Andre  remained 
faithful  to  his  first  love,  and  came  to  America  carrying 
in  his  bosom  a  miniature  of  Honora  suspended  from 
his  neck.  His  sad  fate  during  our  Revolutionary  War 
is  well  known  to  all.  He  was  the  Major  Andrd  whom 
Washington  reluctantly  executed  as  a  spy,  and  whose 
memorial  is  now  conspicuous  in  Westminster  Abbey. 

Peter  Corneille,  the  great  French  dramatic  poet, 
had  nothing  in  his  exterior  that  indicated  his  genius. 
As  to  his  conversational  powers,  they  were  simply  in- 
sipid, and  never  failed  to  weary  all  listeners.  Nature 
had  endowed  him  with  brilliant  gifts,  Init  forgot  to 
grant  him  the  ordinary  accomplishments.  He  did 
not  even  speak  correct  French,  which  he  never  failed 

^  Sir  "Walter  Scott  greatly  admired  Maria  Edge  worth's  novels, 
complimenting  "  her  wonderful  power  of  vivifying  all  her  persons 
and  making  them  live  as  beings  in  your  mind."  Lord  Jeffrey 
honored  "their  singular  union  of  sober  sense  and  inexhaustible 
invention."    She  died  in  1849,  in  her  eighty-second  year. 


44  GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

to  write  with  perfection.  When  his  friends  repre- 
sented to  him  how  much  more  he  might  please  by 
not  disdaining  to  correct  these  trivial  errors,  he  would 
smile  and  say,  "  I  am  none  the  less  Peter  Cor- 
neille ! "  We  learn  from  Rogers  that  in  the  early- 
days  of  his  popularity  Byron  was  quite  diffident  in 
society,  or  at  least  never  ventured  to  take  part  in 
the  conversation.  If  any  one  happened  to  let  fall  an 
observation  which  offended  him,  he  never  attempted 
to  reply,  but  treasured  it  up  for  days,  and  would 
then  come  out  with  some  cutting  remarks,  giving 
them  as  his  deliberate  opinion,  the  result  of  his  ex- 
perience of  the  individual's  character.  Southey  ^  was 
stiff,  reserved,  sedate,  and  so  wrapped  up  in  a  garb  of 
asceticism  that  Charles  Lamb  once  stutteringly  told 
him  he  was  "  m-made  for  a  m-m-monk,  but  somehow 
the  co-co-cowl  did  n't  fit." 

Racine  made  this  confidential  confession  to  his 
son :  "  Do  not  think  that  I  am  sought  after  by  the 
great  on  account  of  my  dramas  ;  Corneille  composed 
nobler  verses  than  mine,  but  no  one  notices  him,  and 
he  only  pleases  by  the  mouth  of  the  actors.  I  never 
allude  to  my  works  when  with  men  of  the  world,  but 

^  Southey  was  marveUouslj'  industrious,  as  over  one  hundred 
published  volumes  testify.  Few  men  have  been  students  so 
long  and  consecutively.  He  possessed  one  of  the  largest  private 
libraries  in  England.  He  says  :  "  Having  no  library  within 
reach,  I  live  upon  my  own  stores,  which  are,  however,  more 
ample  perhaps  than  were  ever  before  possessed  by  one  whose 
whole  estate  was  in  his  inkstand."  He  generously  supported  the 
family  of  Coleridge,  who  were  left  destitute.  His  first  wife  was  a 
sister  of  Coleridge's  wife. 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.  45 

I  amuse  them  about  matters  they  like  to  hear.  My 
talent  with  them  consists  not  in  making  them  feel 
that  I  have  any,  but  in  showing  them  that  they  have." 
The  well-remembered  saying  about  Goldsmith's  lack 
of  conversational  power  is  excellent  because  it  was 
so  true  ;  namely,  that  "  he  wrote  like  an  angel  and 
talked  like  poor  Poll."  ^  Fisher  Ames  and  Rufus 
Choate  were  distinguished  for  their  conversational 
powers.  Stuart,  the  American  painter,  was  remark- 
able in  this  respect ;  and  so  were  Washington  Allston, 
Edgar  A.  Poe,  Margaret  Fuller,  and  the  late  Caleb 
Gushing.  The  lady  just  named  was  considered  to  be 
the  best  talker  of  her  sex  since  Madame  de  Stael. 
Indeed,  those  who  knew  her  well  said  she  talked  even 
better  than  she  wrote,  which  was  saying  much. 

Gharles  Sumner  used  to  relate  a  talk  in  a  com- 
pany where  Daniel  "Webster  was  present.  The 
question  under  discussion  was  what  were  the  best 
means  of  culture.  Webster  was  silent  until  all 
had  spoken.  He  then  said :  "  Gentlemen,  you  have 
overlooked  one  of  the  means  of  culture  which  I 
consider  of  the  first  importance,  and  from  which 
I  have  gained  the  most ;  that  is,  good  conversation."  2 

1  "  To  expect  an  author  to  talk  as  he  writes  is  ridiculous,"  says 
Hazlitt  ;  "  even  if  he  did,  you  would  find  fault  with  him  as  a 
pedant." 

2  There  is  a  sort  of  knowledge  beyond  the  power  of  learning  to 
bestow,  and  this  is  to  be  had  in  conversation  :  so  necessary  is  this 
to  understanding  the  characters  of  men,  that  none  are  more  igno- 
rant of  them  than  those  learned  pedants  whose  lives  have  been 
entirely  consumed  in  colleges  and  among  books.  —  Fielding. 


46  GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

Whipple  has  said  in  one  of  his  essays  that  "  real, 
earnest  conversation  is  a  kind  of  intellectual  canni- 
balism, where  strong  minds  feed  on  each  other  and 
mightily  enjoy  the  repast." 

Charles  Lamb's  most  sportive  essays,  which  read  as 
though  they  came  almost  spontaneously  from  his  pen, 
are  known  to  have  been  the  result  of  intense  brain 
labor.    He  would  spend  a  whole  week  in  elaborating 
a  single  humorous  letter  to  a  friend.     Lamb  was  so 
sensitive  concerning  proof-reading  as  to  be  the  dread 
of  the  printers.     It  is  said  of  the  poet-laureate  of 
England  that   he   has    been   known    to    re-write    a 
poem  twenty  times   and  more  before  he  was  satis- 
fied to  give  it  to  the  printer.     Dickens,  when  writ- 
ing a  book,  was  accustomed  to  shut  himself  up  for 
days  together,  and  to  work  with  fearful  energy  until 
the  task  was  completed ;  after  which  he  would  come 
forth  presenting  the  appearance  of  a  person  recover- 
ing from  a  fit  of  illness.      The  free-and-easy  spirit 
which   characterizes  his   pages   affords   no  evidence 
of  the  travail  through  which  their  author  passed  in 
giving  them  birth.    Bulwer-Lytton  took  matters  much 
more   philosophically.      He   always   worked   at  pen- 
craft leisurely,  never  more  than  three  or  four  hours  a 
day;   and   yet  by  carefully  observing  a  system   the 
aggregate  of  his  productions  was  very  large.     Balzac, 
after  thinking  over  a  subject,  would  retire  to  his  study 
and  write  it  out  half  a  dozen  times  before  he  gave 
the  manuscript  to  the  printer,  whom  he  afterwards 
tormented  to  the  very  verge  of  exasperation  by  his 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.         47 

proof  alterations.  To  come  nearer  to  our  own  time, 
we  may  remark  that  Longfellow,  whose  versification 
seems  always  to  have  flowed  with  such  ease  and 
fluency  from  his  pen,  was  a  slow  and  painstaking 
producer,  sometimes  altering  and  amending  until  the 
original  draft  of  an  essay  or  poem  was  quite  improved 
out  of  sight. 

Dr.  Channing  nearly  drove  his  printers  crazy ;  after 
his  manuscript  —  almost  illegible  by  corrections  and 
interlineations  —  had   been  returned  to  them    with 
alterations,    omissions,    and    additions    on    the   first 
proof-sheets,  he  would  ponder  over,  alter,  and  amend 
three   or    four    successive    proofs   before    he   finally 
allowed  the  result  to  meet  the  public  eye,  —  a  new 
edition  involving  another  series  of  alterations.     The 
lyric  which   cost   Tennyson    the   most   trouble   was 
"  Come  into  the  Garden,  Maud."    It  is  said  to  have 
been  held  back  from  the  public  after  it  had  been  a 
year  in  his  hands,  going  through  repeated  processes 
of  alteration.    What  time  indorses,  requires  time  to 
create  and  finish.     To  this  determination  of  Tennyson 
to  condense  all  his  thoughts  into  the  smallest  space, 
and  never  to  expand  when  by  patient  labor  he  can 
contract,  we  owe  the  few  lines  in  which  he   states 
in  the  "  Princess  "  the  whole  nebular  theory  of  the 
universe  as   expounded   by  Kant  and  Laplace  ;  and 
how  much  reflection  must  have  been  required  to  con- 
dense the  description  of  the  fundamental  defect  of 
English  law,  on  which  volumes  have  been  written,  as 
as  he  has  done  in  "  Aylmer's  Field  :  "  — 


48  GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

"  The  lawless  science  of  our  law, 
That  codeless  myriad  of  precedent, 
That  wilderness  of  single  instances." 

When  we  observe  good  workmanship,  whether  it  be 
by  a  stone-mason,  a  cabinet  -  maker,  or  a  writer,  we 
may  be  sure  that  it  has  cost  much  patient  labor.  His 
biographer  tells  us  that  Moore  thought  ten  or  fifteen 
lines  in  twenty-four  hours  a  good  day's  accomplish- 
ment in  poetry ;  and  at  this  rate  he  wrote  "  Lalla 
Rookh."^  Wordsworth  wrote  his  verses,  laid  them 
aside  for  weeks,  then,  taking  them  up,  frequently  re- 
wrote them  a  score  of  times  before  he  called  them 
finished.  Buffon's  "  Studies  of  Nature "  cost  him 
fifty  years  of  writing  and  re-writing  before  the  work 
was  published.  John  Foster,  the  profound  and  elo- 
quent English  essayist,  often  spent  hours  upon  a 
single  sentence.  Ten  years  elapsed  between  the  first 
sketch  of  Goldsmith's  "  Traveller  "  and  its  final  com- 
pletion.   Rochefoucauld  ^  spent  fifteen  years  over  his 

^  His  publishers  paid  Moore  three  thousand  guineas  for  the 
copyright  of  "  Lalla  Rookh,"  his  favorite  production  ;  and  the  lib- 
eral purchasers,  Longman  &  Co.,  had  no  reason  to  regret  their 
bargain.  When  Moore's  "  Lalla  Rookh  "  first  appeared,  the  au- 
thor was  terribly  taken  aback  in  company  by  Lady  Holland,  who 
said  to  him,  "  Mr.  Moore,  I  don't  intend  to  read  your  Larry 
O'Rourke  ;  I  don't  like  Irish  stories  !  " 

2  Madame  de  Lafayette  was  a  warm  friend  of  Rochefoucauld. 
She  was  intimately  allied  to  the  clever  men  of  the  time,  and  was 
respected  and  loved  by  them.  The  author  of  the  "  Maxims " 
owed  much  to  her,  while  she  also  was  under  obligations  to  him. 
Their  friendship  was  of  mutual  benefit.  "  He  gave  me  intellect," 
she  said,  "  and  I  reformed  his  heart." 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.  49 

little  book  of  Maxims,  altering  some  of  them  thirty- 
times.  Rogers  admitted  that  he  had  more  than  once 
spent  ten  days  upon  a  single  verse  before  he  turned 
it  to  suit  him.  Vaugelas,  the  great  French  scholar, 
devoted  twenty  years  to  his  admirable  translation  of 
"  Quintus  Curtius." 

Some  authors  have  produced  with  such  rapidity 
as  to  approach  improvisation.  Perhaps  the  most  re- 
markable instance  of  this  was  in  the  case  of  Lope  de 
Vega,  who  composed  and  wrote  a  versified  drama  in  a 
single  day,  and  is  known  to  have  done  so  for  seven 
consecutive  days.  Contemporary  with  Shakspeare 
and  Cervantes,  De  Vega  has  left  behind  him  two 
thousand  original  dramas  sparkling  with  vivacity  of 
dialogue  and  richness  of  invention.  Soldier,  duellist, 
poet,  sailor,  and  priest,  his  long  life  was  one  of  in- 
tense activity  and  adventure.^  The  name  of  Hardy, 
the  French  dramatic  author  and  actor,  occurs  to  us 
in  this  connection ;  though  an  inferior  genius  to  De 
Vega,  he  wrote  over  six  hundred  original  dramas. 
He  was  considered  the  first  dramatic  writer  of  the 
days  of  Henry  IV.  and  Louis  XTII.,  before  whom 
Hardy  often  appeared  upon  the  stage  personating  the 
heroes  of  his  own  dramas. 

^  His  enemies  having  declared  that  De  Vega's  dramas  were  not 
judged  upon  their  merit,  but  were  popular  because  they  bore  his 
name,  —  to  try  the  public  taste  he  -wrote  and  published  a  book  of 
poems  anonymously,  entitled  "  Soliloquies  on  God."  Their  merit 
-was  undisputed,  and  they  -were  vastly  popular,  until  the  carping 
critics  threatened  him  with  the  unkno-wn  author  as  a  rival.  His 
triumph  when  he  claimed  them  as  his  own  was  complete, 

4 


60  GENIUS  IN  SUNSUINE  AND  SHjiDOW. 

Prynne,  the  English  antiquary,  politician,  and 
pamphlet-writer,  sat  down  early  in  the  morning  to 
his  composition.  Every  two  hours  his  man  brought 
him  a  roll  and  a  pot  of  ale  as  refreshment;  and 
so  he  continued  until  night,  when  he  partook  of  a 
hearty  dinner.  One  of  his  pamphlets  was  entitled 
"A  Scourge  for  Stage-Players,"  which  was  considered 
so  scurrilous  that  the  Star-Chamber  sentenced  him 
to  pay  a  heavy  fine,  to  be  exposed  in  the  pillory,  to 
lose  his  ears,  and  to  be  imprisoned  for  life.  He  was 
finally  released  from  prison.  While  he  was  confined 
in  the  pillory,  a  pyramid  of  his  offending  pamphlets 
was  made  close  at  hand,  to  windward  of  his  position, 
and  set  on  fire,  so  that  the  author  was  very  nearly 
choked  to  death  by  the  smoke.  He  was  almost  as 
incessant  and  inveterate  a  writer  as  Petrarch,  and 
considered  being  debarred  from  pen  and  ink  an  act 
more  barbarous  than  the  loss  of  his  ears.  However, 
he  partially  obviated  his  want  of  the  usual  facilities 
by  writing  a  whole  volume  on  his  prison  walls  while 
confined  in  the  Tower  of  London. 

Byron  wrote  the  "  Corsair  "  in  ten  days,  which  was 
an  average  of  nearly  two  hundred  lines  a  day,  —  a 
fact  which  he  acknowledged  to  Moore  with  a  degree 
of  shame.  He  said  he  would  not  confess  it  to  every- 
body, considering  it  to  be  a  humiliating  fact,  proving 
his  own  want  of  judgment  in  publishing,  and  the  pub- 
lic in  reading,  "  things  which  cannot  have  stamina 
for  permanent  attention."  The  surpassing  beauty  of 
the  "  Corsair,"  however,  excuses  all  the  author  said 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADO  W.  61 

or  did  in  connection  with  it.  It  may  nevertheless 
be  affirmed  that,  as  a  rule,  no  great  work  has  ever 
been  performed  with  ease,  or  ever  will  be  accom- 
plished without  encountering  the  throes  of  time  and 
labor.  Dante,  we  remember,  saw  himself  "  growing 
lean "  over  his  "  Divine  Comedy."  Mary  Russell 
Mitford,  the  charming  English  authoress,  dramatist, 
poet,  and  novelist,  who  so  excelled  in  her  sketches 
of  country  life,  says  of  herself :  "I  write  with  ex- 
treme slowness,  labor,  and  difficulty ;  and,  whatever 
you  may  think,  there  is  a  great  difference  of  facility 
in  different  minds.  I  am  the  slowest  writer,  I  sup- 
pose, in  England,  and  touch  and  retouch  incessantly." 
Her  life  was  one  of  constant  labor  and  self-abnega- 
tion in  behalf  of  a  worthless,  selfish,  and  imperious 
father.  He  was  a  robust,  showy,  wasteful  profli- 
gate, and  a  gambler.  A  doctor  by  profession,  he 
was  a  spendthrift  and  sensualist  by  occupation.  He 
contracted  a  venal  marriage  with  an  heiress  much 
older  than  himself,  and  after  squandering  her  en- 
tire fortune  he  fell  back  upon  his  daughter  as  the 
bread-winner  for  the  whole  family.  By  a  remark- 
able chance  she  became  the  possessor  of  a  great 
lottery  prize,  from  which  she  realized  twenty  thousand 
pounds,  every  penny  of  which  her  beastly  father 
drank  and  gambled  away.  Still,  the  devotion  and 
industry  of  the  daughter  never  waned  for  a  moment. 
Her  patient  struggles  have  placed  her  name  on  the 
roll  of  fame,  while  her  father's  has  sunk  into  de- 
served oblivion. 


52  GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

De  Tocqueville  "wrote  to  his  publishers  :  "  You  must 
think  me  very  slow.  You  would  forgive  me  if  you 
knew  how  hard  it  is  for  me  to  satisfy  myself,  and  how 
impossible  it  is  for  me  to  finish  things  incompletely." 
Horace  suggested  that  authors  should  keep  their 
literary  productions  from  the  public  eye  for  at  least 
nine  years,  which  certainly  ought  to  produce  "  the 
well-ripened  fruit  of  sage  delay."  After  a  labor  of 
eleven  years  Virgil  pronounced  his  JEneid  imperfect. 
This  recalls  the  Italian  saying,  "  One  need  not  be  a 
stag,  neither  ought  one  to  be  a  tortoise."  Tasso's 
manuscript,  which  is  still  extant,  is  almost  illegible 
because  of  the  number  of  alterations  which  he  made 
after  having  written  it.  Montaigne,  "  the  Horace  of 
Essayists,"  could  not  be  induced,  so  lazy  and  self- 
indulgent  was  he,  to  even  look  at  the  proof-sheets  of 
his  writings.     "  I  add,  but  I  correct  not,"  he  said. 

Tlie  writer  of  these  pages  has  seen  the  original 
draft  of  Longfellow's  "  Excelsior,"  so  interlined  and 
amended  to  suit  the  author's  taste  as  to  make  the 
manuscript  rather  difficult  to  decipher.  The  poet 
wrote  a  back-hand,  as  it  is  called ;  that  is,  the  letters 
sloped  in  the  opposite  direction  from  the  usual  cus- 
tom, and  as  a  rule  his  writing  was  remarkably  legible. 
Coleridge  was  very  methodical  as  to  the  time  and 
place  of  his  composition.  He  told  Hazlitt  that  he 
liked  to  compose  walking  over  uneven  ground,  or 
making  his  way  through  straggling  branches  of  under- 
growth in  the  woods ;  which  was  a  very  affected  and 
erratic  notion,  and  might  better  have  been  "  whipped 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.  63 

out  of  him."  1  Wordsworth,  on  the  contrary,  found 
his  favorite  place  for  composing  his  rerses  in  walk- 
ing back  and  forth  upon  the  smooth  paths  of  his 
garden,  among  flowers  and  creeping  vines.  Hazlitt, 
in  a  critical  analysis  of  the  two  poets,  traces  a  like- 
ness to  the  style  of  each  in  his  choice  of  exercise 
while  maturing  his  thoughts,  —  which,  it  would  seem 
to  us,  is  a  subtile  deduction  altogether  too  fine  to 
signify  anything. 

Charles  Dibdin,  the  famous  London  song-writer 
and  musician,  whose  sea-songs  as  published  number 
over  a  thousand,  caught  his  ideas  "  on  the  fly."  As 
an  example,  he  was  at  a  loss  for  something  new  to 
sing  on  a  certain  occasion.  A  friend  was  with  him 
in  his  lodgings  and  suggested  several  themes.  Sud- 
denly the  jar  of  a  ladder  against  the  street  lamp-post 
under  his  window  was  heard.  It  was  a  hint  to  his 
fertile  imagination,  and  Dibdin  exclaimed,  "  The 
Lamplighter !  That 's  it ;  first-rate  idea  !  "  and  step- 
ping to  the  piano  he  finished  both  song  and  words  in 
an  hour,  and  sang  them  in  public  with  great  dclat 
that  very  night,  under  the  title  of  "Jolly  Dick,  the 
Lamplighter."     Like  nearly  all  such  mercurial  gen- 

1  Coleridge  tells  us  how  he  was  once  cured,  of  infidelity  by  his 
teacher.  "  I  told  Boyer  that  I  hated  the  thought  of  becoming  a 
clergyman.  '  Why  so  ? '  said  he.  '  Because,  to  tell  you  the  truth, 
sir,'  I  said,  '  I  'm  an  infidel ! '  For  this,  without  further  ado, 
Boyer  flogged  me,  —  wisely,  as  I  think,  soundly,  as  I  know. 
Any  whining  or  sermonizing  would  have  gratified  my  vanity,  and 
confirmed  me  in  my  al:>surdity  ;  as  it  was,  I  was  laughed  at,  and 
got  heartily  ashamed  of  my  folly." 


54  GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

iuses,  Dibdin  was  generous,  careless,  and  improvident 
in  his  habits,  dying  at  last  poor  and  neglected. 

Dr.  Johnson  was  so  extremely  short-sighted  that 
■writing,  re-writing,  and  correcting  upon  paper  were 
very  inconvenient  for  him;  he  was  therefore  accus- 
tomed to  revolve  a  subject  very  carefully  in  his  mind, 
forming  sentences  and  periods  with  minute  care ;  and 
by  means  of  his  remarkable  memory  he  retained  them 
with  great  precision  for  use  and  final  transmission  to 
paper.  "When  he  began,  therefore,  with  pen  in  hand, 
his  production  of  copy  was  very  rapid,  and  it  re- 
quired scarcely  any  corrections.  Boswell  says  that 
posterity  will  be  astonished  when  they  are  told  that 
many  of  these  discourses,  which  might  be  supposed 
to  be  labored  with  all  the  slow  attention  of  literary 
leisure,  were  written  in  haste,  as  the  moments  pressed, 
without  even  being  read  over  by  Johnson  before  they 
were  printed.  Sir  John  Hawkins  says  that  the  origi- 
nal manuscripts  of  the  "  Eambler "  passed  through 
his  hands,  "  and  by  the  perusal  of  them  I  am  war- 
ranted to  say,  as  was  said  of  Shakspeare  by  the 
players  of  his  time,  that  he  never  blotted  a  line." 
Johnson  tells  us  that  he  wrote  the  life  of  Savage 
in  six-and-thirty  hours.  He  also  wrote  his  "  Hermit 
of  Teneriffe "  in  a  single  night.  When  we  consider 
the  amount  of  literary  work  performed  by  Johnson, 
say  in  the  period  of  seven  years,  while  "  he  sailed  a 
long  and  painful  voyage  round  the  world  of  the  Eng- 
lish language,"  and  produced  his  dictionary,  we  must 
give  him  credit  for  the  most  remarkable  industry  and 


J 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.  55 

great  rapidity  of  production.  During  these  seven 
years  he  found  time  also  to  complete  his  "  Rambler," 
the  "  Vanity  of  Human  Wishes,"  and  his  tragedy, 
besides  several  minor  literary  performances.  No 
wonder  he  developed  hypochondria.  Burke  was  a 
very  slow  and  painstaking  producer ;  it  is  even  said 
that  he  had  all  his  works  printed  at  a  private  press 
before  submitting  them  to  his  publisher. 

Hume  was  more  rapid,  even  careless  with  his  first 
edition  of  a  work,  but  went  on  correcting  each  new 
one  to  the  day  of  his  death.i  Macaulay,  in  his  elab- 
orate speeches,  did  not  write  them  out  beforehand, 
but  thought  them  out,  trusting  to  his  memory  to 
recall  every  epigrammatic  statement  and  every  feli- 
citous epithet  which  he  had  previously  forged  in  his 
mind,  so  that  when  the  time  came  for  their  delivery 
they  appeared  to  spring  forth  as  the  spontaneous  out- 
pouring of  his  feelings  and  sentiments,  excited  by 
the  questions  discussed.  Wendell  Phillips  followed 
a  similar  method. 

Thomas  Paine,  the  political  and  deistical  writer, 
was  under  contract  to  furnish  a  certain  amount  of 
matter  for  each  number  of  the  "  Pennsylvania  Maga- 
zine." Aitken  the  publisher  had  great  difficulty  in 
getting  him  to  fulfil  his  agreement.     Paine's  indo- 

1  When  Hume  was  in  Paris  receiving  the  homage  of  the  phi- 
losophers, three  little  boys  were  brought  before  him,  who  compli- 
mented him  after  the  fashion  of  grown  persons,  expressing  their 
admiration  for  his  beautiful  history.  These  children  afterwards 
succeeded  to  the  throne  as  Louis  XVI.,  his  brother,  Louis  XVIIL, 
and  Charles  X. 


56  GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

lence  was  such  that  he  was  always  behindhand  \nth 
his  engagements.  Finally,  after  it  had  become  too 
late  to  delay  longer,  Aitken  would  go  to  his  house, 
tell  him  the  printers  were  standing  idle  waiting  for 
his  copy,  and  insist  upon  his  accompanying  him  to 
the  office.  Paine  would  do  so,  when  pen,  ink,  and 
paper  would  be  placed  before  him,  and  he  would  sit 
thoughtfully,  but  produce  nothing  until  Aitken  gave 
him  a  large  glass  of  brandy.  Even  then  he  would 
delay.  The  publisher  naturally  feared  to  give  him 
a  second  glass,  thinking  that  it  would  disqualify  him 
altogether ,  but,  on  the  contrary,  his  brain  seemed  to 
be  illumined  by  it,  and  when  he  had  swallowed  the 
third  glass,  —  quite  enough  to  have  made  Mr.  Aitken 
dead  drunk,  —  he  would  write  with  rapidity,  intelli- 
gence, and  precision,  his  ideas  appearing  to  flow  faster 
than  he  could  express  them  on  paper.  The  copy  pro- 
duced under  the  fierce  stimulant  was  remarkable  for 
correctness,  and  fit  for  the  press  without  revision.^ 

Charlotte  Bronte  was  a  very  slow  producer  of  liter- 
ary work,  and  was  obliged  to  choose  her  special  days. 
Often  for  a  week,  and  sometimes  longer,  she  could 
not  write  at  all ;  her  brain  seemed  to  be  dormant. 
Then,  without  any  premonition  or  apparent  inducing 
cause,  she  would  awake  in  the  morning,  go  to  her 
writing-desk,  and  the  ideas  would  come  with  more 

^  This  was  the  Tom  Paine  on  whom  was  written  one  of  the 
most  felicitous  of  epitaphs  :  — 

"  Here  lies  Tom  Paine,  who  wrote  in  Liberty's  defence, 
But  in  his  '  Age  of  Reason '  lost  his  '  Common  Sense. '  " 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.  57 

rapidity  than  she  could  pen  them.  Mrs.  Gaskell  the 
novelist,  a  friend  of  the  Brontes,  was  exactly  the 
opposite  in  her  style  of  composition.  She  could  sit 
down  at  any  hour  and  lose  herself  in  the  process  of 
the  story  she  was  composing.  She  was  also  a  pro- 
lific authoress,  of  whom  George  Sand  said :  "  She 
has  done  what  neither  I  nor  other  female  writers  in 
France  can  accomplish  ;  she  has  written  novels  which 
excite  the  deepest  interest  in  men  of  the  world,  and 
which  every  girl  will  be  the  better  for  reading." 
Bacon  ^  often  had  music  played  in  the  room  adjoining 
his  library,  saying  that  he  gathered  inspiration  from 
its  strains.  Warburton  said  music  was  always  a 
necessity  to  him  when  engaged  in  intellectual  labor. 
Curran,  the  great  Irish  barrister,  had  also  his  fa- 
vorite mode  of  meditation ;  it  was  with  his  violin 
in  hand.  He  would  seem  to  forget  himself,  running 
voluntaries  over  the  strings,  while  his  imagination, 
collecting  its  tones,  was  kindling  and  invigorating 
all  his  faculties  for  the  coming  contest  at  the  bar. 
Bishop  Beveridge  adopted  Bacon's  plan,  and  said, 
"  When  music  sounds  sweetest  in  my  ears,  truth 
commonly  flows  the  clearest  in  my  mind."      Even 

1  Bacon  was  full  of  crotchets,  so  to  speak.  In  spring,  lie  would 
go  out  for  a  drive  in  an  open  coach  while  it  rained,  to  receive 
"  the  Lenefit  of  irrigation,"  which,  he  contended,  was  "  most 
wholesome  because  of  the  nitre  in  the  air,  and  the  universal 
spirit  of  the  world."  He  had  exti-aordinary  notions  and  indulged 
them  freely,  such  as  dosing  himself  with  chemicals,  rhubarl),  nitre, 
saffron,  and  many  other  medicines.  At  every  meal  his  table  was 
abundantly  strewn  with  flowers  and  sweet  herbs. 


58  GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

the  cold,  passionless  Carljle  said  music  was  to  him 
a  kind  of  inarticulate  speech  which  led  him  to  the 
edge  of  the  infinite,  and  permitted  him  for  a  moment 
to  gaze  into  it. 

John  Foster,  the  English  essayist,  declared  that 
the  special  quality  of  genius  was  "  the  power  to  light 
its  own  fire;"  and  certainly  Sir  Walter  Scott  was 
a  shining  example  of  this  truth.  Shelley,  a  poet  of 
finer  but  less  robust  fibre,  decided  that  "  the  mind, 
in  creating,  is  as  a  fading  coal,  which  some  passing 
influence,  like  an  invisible  wind,  wakens  into  momen- 
tary brightness." 

As  already  remarked,  ten  years  transpired  between 
the  first  sketch  of  the  "  Traveller,"  which  was  made 
in  Switzerland,  and  its  publication  ;  but  the  history  of 
the  "  Vicar  of  Wakefield  "  was  quite  different.  Gold- 
smith hastened  the  closing  pages  to  raise  money,  being 
terribly  pressed  for  the  payment  of  numerous  small 
bills,  and  also  by  his  landlady  for  rent.  He  was 
actually  under  arrest  for  this  last  debt,  and  sent  to 
Dr.  Johnson  to  come  to  him  at  once.  Understanding 
very  well  what  was  the  trouble,  Johnson  sent  him  a 
guinea,  and  came  in  person  as  soon  as  he  could.  He 
found,  on  arriving,  that  Goldsmith  had  already  broken 
the  guinea  and  was  drinking  a  bottle  of  wine  pur- 
chased therewith.  The  Doctor  put  the  cork  into  the 
bottle,  and  began  to  talk  over  the  means  of  extricating 
the  impecunious  author  from  his  troubles.  Goldsmith 
told  Johnson  that  he  had  just  finished  a  small  book, 
and  wished  he  would  look   at  it;    perhaps  it  would 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.  59 

bring  in  some  money.  He  brought  forth  the  manu- 
script of  the  "  Vicar  of  Wakefield."  Johnson  hastily- 
glanced  over  it,  paused,  read  a  chapter  carefully,  bade 
Goldsmith  to  be  of  good  cheer,  and  hastened  away 
with  the  new  story  to  Newbury  the  publisher,  who, 
solely  on  Johnson's  recommendation,  gave  him  sixty 
pounds  for  the  manuscript  and  threw  it  into  his  desk, 
where  it  remained  undisturbed  for  two  years.^ 

A  voluminous  writer  once  explained  to  Goldsmith 
the  advantage  of  employing  an  amanuensis.  "  How 
do  you  manage  it  ? "  asked  Goldsmith.  "  Why,  I  walk 
about  the  room  and  dictate  to  a  clever  man,  who  puts 
down  very  correctly  all  that  I  tell  him,  so  that  I  have 
nothing  to  do  but  to  look  it  over  and  send  it  to  the 
printers."  Goldsmith  was  delighted  with  the  idea,  and 
asked  his  friend  to  send  the  scribe  to  him.  The  next 
day  the  penman  came  with  his  implements,  ready 
to  catch  his  new  employer's  words  and  to  record 
them.  Goldsmith  paced  the  room  with  great  thought- 
fulness,  just  as  his  friend  had  described  to  him,  back 
and  forth,  back  and  forth,  several  times  ;  but  after 
racking  his  brain  to  no  purpose  for  half  an  hour,  he 
gave  it  up.  He  handed  the  scribe  a  guinea,  saying, 
"  It  won't  do,  my  friend  ;  I  find  that  my  head  and 
hand  must  work  together." 

1  It  is  curious  that  St.  Pierre's  story  of  Paul  and  Virginia, 
which  has  since  proved  one  of  the  naost  popular  tales  ever  written, 
was  at  first  listened  to  by  the  author's  friends  so  coldly  that  after 
it  was  finished  he  laid  it  by  for  months;  but  when  it  once  got 
into  print  the  public  indorsed  it  immediately,  and  fresh  editions 
followed  each  other  in  rapid  succession. 


60  GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

Milton  dictated  that  immortal  poem,  "  Paradise 
Lost,"  his  daughters  being  his  amanuenses ;  but  Mil- 
ton was  then  blind.  It  is  said  of  Julius  Caesar  that 
while  writing  a  despatch  he  could  at  the  same  time 
dictate  seven  letters  to  as  many  clerks.  This  seems 
almost  miraculous ;  but  in  our  own  day  Paul  Morphy 
has  performed  quite  as  difficult  a  feat  at  chess,  play- 
ing several  games  at  once,  blindfolded. 

One  of  the  most  eminent  and  eloquent  of  Amer- 
ican preachers  and  lecturers,  Thomas  Starr  King,  was 
accustomed  to  dictate  to  an  amanuensis  ;  but  when  a 
difficulty  would  occur  in  developing  his  thought,  he 
would  take  the  pen  in  his  own  hand,  and,  abstracting 
himself  entirely  from  the  wondering  reporter  by  his 
side,  would  spend  perhaps  half  an  hour  in  deeper 
thinking  and  more  exact  expression  than  when  he 
dictated.  Those  who  have  examined  his  manuscript 
since  his  death  easily  perceive  that  the  portions  of  a 
sermon  or  a  lecture  which  he  personally  wrote  are 
better  than  those  which  he  poured  forth  to  his  aman- 
uensis as  he  walked  the  room.  On  one  occasion  a 
friend  who  was  in  favor  of  making  the  pen  and  brain 
work  together  went  to  hear  Mr.  King  deliver  a  lecture 
on  Pope  Gregory  VII.  (Hildebrand),  and  at  its  con- 
clusion told  the  lecturer  that  he  could  distinguish, 
without  seeing  the  manuscript,  the  portions  he  wrote 
with  his  own  hand  from  those  he  dictated.  He  suc- 
ceeded so  well,  in  the  course  of  half  an  hour's  con- 
versation, as  to  surprise  the  orator  by  hitting  on  the 
passages  in  dispute,  and  proving  his  case. 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.  61 

To  write  an  acceptable  book,  poem,  or  essay,  is 
quite  as  much  of  a  trade  as  to  make  a  clock  or  shoe 
a  horse.  To  produce  easy-flowing  sentences,  as  they 
finally  appear  before  the  reader's  eye,  has  cost  much 
careful  thought,  long  and  patient  practice,  and  even 
with  some  famous  authors,  as  we  have  seen,  many 
hours  of  writing  and  re-writing.  So  far  as  it  is  ap- 
plied to  authorship,  we  are  not  surprised  at  Hogarth's 
remark  :  "  I  know  no  such  thing  as  genius  ;  genius 
is  nothing  but  labor  and  diligence."  Buffon's  defi- 
nition is  nearly  the  same  ;  he  says,  "  Genius  is  only 
great  patience."  Authors  are  generally  very  com- 
monplace representatives  of  humanity,  and  remark- 
ably like  the  average  citizen  whom  we  meet  in  our 
daily  walk.  Rogers,  in  his  "  Table  Talk,"  says  : 
"  When  literature  is  the  sole  business  of  life,  it  be- 
comes a  drudgery  ;  when  we  are  able  to  resort  to  it 
only  at  certain  hours,  it  is  a  charming  relaxation.  In 
my  early  years  I  was  a  banker's  clerk,  obliged  to 
be  at  the  desk  every  day  from  ten  to  five  o'clock,  and 
I  shall  never  forget  the  delight  with  which,  on  re- 
turning home,  I  used  to  read  and  write  during  the 
evening."  He  was  a  great  reader,  but  said  that  "  a 
man  who  attempts  to  read  all  the  new  publications 
must  often  do  as  a  flea  docs  —  skip."  ^ 

^  Poor,  dear  Rogers !  Smith  was  disjoosed  to  be  a  little  too  hard 
on  him.  Some  one  having  asked  after  Rogers's  health  in  Smith's 
presence,  he  replied,  "  He  's  not  very  weU."  "  Why,  what  's 
the  matter  1 "  rejoined  the  querist.  "  Oh,  don't  you  know,"  said 
Smith, "  he 's  produced  a  couplet ;  "  and  added  :  "  When  our  friend 
is  delivered  of  a  couplet  with  infinite  labor  and  pain,  he  takes  to 


62  GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

To  recur  to  Charles  Dickens,  is  it  generally  known 
that  his  favorite  novel  of  "  David  Copperfield  "  par- 
tially relates  to  the  history  of  his  own  boyhood  ?  The 
story  of  David's  employment,  when  a  child,  in  wash- 
ing and  labelling  blacking-bottles  in  a  London  cellar, 
was  true  of  Dickens  himself.  If  it  were  possible  to 
read  between  the  lines,  we  should  not  infrequently 
find  the  most  effective  narrative  sketches  little  less 
than  biography  or  autobiography.  Thackeray  and 
Dickens  both  wrote  under  the  thin  gauze  of  fiction. 
"  Yivian  Gray  "  is  but  a  photograph  of  its  dilettante 
author;  and  every  character  drawn  by  Charlotte 
Bronte  is  a  true  portrait,  all  being  confined  within  so 
small  a  circle  as  to  be  easily  recognizable.  Smol- 
lett sat  for  his  own  personality  in  that  of  Roderick 
Random ;  while  Scott  drew  many  of  his  most  strongly 
individualized  characters,  like  that  of  Dominie  Samp- 
son, from  people  in  his  immediate  circle. 

Coleridge  says  of  Milton :  "  In  '  Paradise  Lost,'  in- 
deed in  every  one  of  his  poems,  it  is  Milton  himself 
whom  you  see.  His  Satan,  his  Adam,  his  Raphael, 
almost  his  Eve,  are  all  John  Milton ;  and  it  is  a 
sense  of  this  intense  egotism  that  gives  one  the  great- 
est pleasure  in  reading  Milton's  works."  It  is 
well  known  that  many  of  Byron's  ^  poetical  plots  are 

his  bed,  has  straw  laid  down,  the  knocker  tied  up,  expects  his 
friends  to  call  and  make  inquiries,  and  the  answer  at  the  door 
invariably  is,  '  Mr.  Rogers  and  his  little  couplet  are  as  well  as 
can  be  expected ' !  " 

^  That  excellent  and  conservative  critic,  Epes  Sargent,  says  of 
the  author  of  "  Don  Juan,"  "  He  may  have  been  overrated  in  his 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.  63 

almost  literally  his  personal  experiences.  This  was 
especially  the  case  as  to  the  "  Giaour."  A  beautiful 
female  slave  was  thrown  into  the  sea  for  infidelity, 
and  was  terribly  avenged  by  her  lover,  while  Byron 
was  in  the  East ;  being  impressed  with  the  dramatic 
character  of  the  tragedy,  he  gave  it  expression  in  a 
poem.  Carlyle  says  that  Satan  was  Byron's  grand 
exemplar,  the  hero  of  his  poetry,  and  the  model,  ap- 
parently, of  his  conduct.  In  Bulwer-Lytton's  "  Dis- 
owned," one  of  his  earliest  and  best  stories,  the  hero, 
Clarence  Linden,  a  youth  of  eighteen,  while  journeying 
as  a  pedestrian,  makes  the  acquaintance  of  a  free-and- 
easy  person  named  Cole,  —  a  gypsy  king,  —  in  whose 
camp  he  passes  the  night :  all  of  which  was  an  actual 
experience  of  Bulwer  himself.  Hans  Christian  An- 
dersen gives  us  many  of  his  personal  experiences  in 
his  popular  tale,  "  Only  a  Fiddler ; "  so  is  "  Gilbert 
Gurney,"  a  novel  by  Theodore  Hook,  a  biography  of 
himself  as  a  practical  joker.  It  will  thus  be  seen  that 
authors  do  not  always  draw  entirely  upon  the  imagina- 
tion for  incidents,  characters,  and  plot,  but  that  there 
is  from  first  to  last  a  large  amount  of  actual  truth  in 
seeming  fiction. 

When  Goldsmith  was  a  lad  of  fifteen  or  there- 
day  ;  but  his  place  in  English  literature  must  ever  be  in  the  front 
rank  of  the  immortals."  "Byron,"  said  Emerson  once,  "had 
large  utterance,  hut  little  to  say,"  —  a  half-truth  pointedly  ex- 
pressed ;  but,  alluding  to  Byron's  poems  in  his  later  life,  ac- 
knowledging their  captivating  energy,  Emerson  denied  having 
uttered,  even  in  conversation,  so  derogatory  a  remark  of  him  who 
was,  with  all  his  limitations,  a  bard  palpably  inspired. 


64  GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

about,  some  one  gave  liim  a  guinea,  with  which,  and 
a  borrowed  horse,  he  set  out  for  a  holiday  trip.  He 
got  belated  when  returning,  and,  inquiring  of  a 
stranger  if  he  would  point  out  to  him  a  house  of 
entertainment,  was  mischievously  directed  to  the 
residence  of  the  sheriff  of  the  county.  Here  he 
knocked  lustily  at  the  door,  and  sending  his  horse 
to  the  stable,  ordered  a  good  supper,  inviting  the 
"  landlord  "  to  drink  a  bottle  of  wine  with  him.  The 
next  morning,  after  an  ample  breakfast,  he  offered 
his  guinea  in  payment,  when  the  squire,  who  knew 
Goldsmith's  family,  overwhelmed  him  with  confusion 
by  telling  him  the  truth.  Thirty  years  afterwards 
Goldsmith  availed  himself  of  this  humiliating  blunder 
at  the  time  he  wrote  that  popular  comedy,  "  She 
Stoops  to  Conquer."  When  Goldsmith  was  talking 
to  a  friend  of  writing  a  fable  in  which  little  fishes 
were  to  be  introduced,  Dr.  Johnson,  who  was  present, 
laughed  rather  sneeringly.  "  Why  do  you  laugh  ? " 
asked  Goldsmith,  angrily.  "  If  you  were  to  write  a 
fable  of  little  fishes,  you  would  make  them  speak  like 
whales ! "  The  justice  of  the  reproof  was  perfectly 
apparent  to  Johnson,  who  was  conscious  of  Gold- 
smith's superior  inventiveness,  lightness,  and  grace 
of  composition. 

Speaking  of  authors  writing  from  their  own  per- 
sonal experience  recalls  a  name  which  we  must  not 
neglect  to  mention.  Laurence  Sterne,  author  of 
"  Tristram  Shandy,"  various  volumes  of  sermons,  the 
"  Sentimental    Journey,"    etc.,  was   a   curious   com- 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.  65 

pound  in  character,  but  possessed  of  real  genius.  He 
was  quite  a  sentimentalist  in  his  writings,  and  those 
who  did  not  know  him  personally  would  accredit  him 
with  possessing  a  tender  heart.  The  fact  was,  how- 
ever, as  Horace  Walpole  said  of  him,  "He  had  too 
much  sentiment  to  have  any  feeling."  His  mother, 
who  had  run  in  debt  on  account  of  an  extravagant 
daughter,  would  have  been  permitted  to  remain  indefi- 
nitely in  jail,  but  for  the  kindness  of  the  parents  of 
her  pupils.  Her  son  Laurence  heeded  her  not.  "  A 
dead  ass  was  more  important  to  him  than  a  living 
mother,"  says  Walpole.  Sterne  also  used  his  wife 
very  ill.  One  day  he  was  talking  to  Garrick  in  a  fine 
sentimental  manner  in  praise  of  conjugal  love  and 
fidelity.  "  The  husband,"  said  Sterne,  "  who  behaves 
unkindly  to  his  wife,  deserves  to  have  his  house 
burned  over  his  head."  Garrick's  reply  was  only 
just :  "  If  you  think  so,  I  hope  your  house  is  in- 
sured." He  is  known  to  have  been  engaged  to  a 
Miss  Fourmantel  for  five  years,  and  then  to  have 
jilted  her  so  cruelly  that  she  ended  her  days  in  a  mad- 
house. Such  was  the  great  Laurence  Sterne.  It  was 
poetical  justice  that  he  should  repent  at  leisure  of 
his  subsequent  hasty  marriage  to  one  whom  he  had 
known  only  four  weeks.  He  twice  visited  the  lady 
whom  he  had  deceived,  in  the  establishment  where 
she  was  confined ;  and  the  character  of  Maria,  whom 
he  so  pathetically  describes,  is  drawn  from  her,  show- 
ing how  cheaply  he  could  coin  his  pretended  feelings. 
Contradictions  in  character  are  often  ludicrous,  and 

5 


Q6  GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

go  to  show  that  the  author  and  the  man  arc  seldom 
one.  What  can  be  more  contradictory  in  the  nature 
of  the  same  individual  than  Sterne  whining  over  a 
dead  ass  and  neglecting  to  relieve  a  living  mother ; 
or  Prior  addressing  the  most  romantic  sonnets  to  his 
Chloc,  and  at  the  same  time  indulging  a  sentimental 
passion  for  a  barmaid  ? 

Goldsmith's  "  Deserted  Village,"  according  to  Mr. 
Best,  an  Irish  clergyman,  relates  to  the  scenes  in 
which  Goldsmith  was  himself  an  actor.  Auburn  is 
a  poetical  name  for  the  village  of  Lissoy,  county  of 
Westneath.  The  name  of  the  schoolmaster  was 
Paddy  Burns.  "  I  remember  him  well,"  says  Mr. 
Best ;  "  he  was  indeed  a  man  severe  to  view.  A 
woman  called  Walsey  Cruse  kept  the  ale-house.  I 
have  often  been  within  it.  The  hawthorn  bush  was 
remarkably  large,  and  stood  in  front  of  the  ale-house." 
The  author  of  the  "  Deserted  Village,"  however,  made 
his  best  contemporary  "  hit "  with  his  poem  of  the 
"  Traveller."  He  always  distrusted  his  poetic  ability, 
and  this  poem  was  kept  on  hand  some  years  after  it 
was  completed,  before  he  published  it  in  1764.  It 
passed  through  several  editions  in  the  first  year,  and 
proved  a  golden  harvest  to  Newbury  the  publisher ; 
but  Goldsmith  received  only  twenty  guineas  for  the 
manuscript. 

The  character  of  Sober,  in  Johnson's  "Idler,"  is 
a  portrait  of  himself;  and  he  admitted  more  than 
once  that  he  had  his  own  outset  in  life  in  his  mind 
when  he  wrote  the  Eastern  story  of   "  Gelalcddin." 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.         67 

Is  not  "  Tristram  Shandy  "  a  synonym  for  its  author, 
Sterne  ?  Hazhtt  and  many  others  fuse  the  personality 
of  the  author  of  the  "  Imaginary  Conversations  "  with 
this  admirable  work  from  his  pen :  certainly  a  high 
compliment  to  Landor,  if  the  portraiture  is  a  likeness. 
Walter  Savage  Landor  i  was  a  most  erratic  genius,  a 
man  of  uncontrollable  passions  which  led  him  into 
constant  difficulties  ;  at  times  he  must  have  been  par- 
tially deranged.  In  all  his  productions  he  exhibits 
high  literary  culture ;  and  being  born  to  a  fortune,  he 
was  enabled  to  adapt  himself  to  his  most  fastidious 
tastes,  though  in  the  closing  years  of  his  life,  having 
lost  his  money,  he  learned  the  meaning  of  that  bitter 
word  dependence.  The  severest  critic  must  accord 
him  the  genius  of  a  poet ;  but  his  literar  reputation 
will  rest  upon  his  elaborate  prose  work,  "  Imaginary 
Conversations  "  of  literary  men  and  statesmen,  upon 
which  he  was  engaged  for  more  than  ten  years.  He 
lived  to  the  age  of  ninety,  and  found  solace  in  his  pen 
to  the  last. 

^  "  I  had  learned  from  his  works,"  remarks  Lady  Blessington, 
after  meeting  Landor  at  Florence,  in  May,  1825,  "to  form  a  high 
opinion  of  the  man  as  well  as  the  author.  But  I  was  not  pre- 
pared to  find  in  him  the  courtly,  polished  gentleman  of  high 
breeding,  of  manners,  deportment,  and  demeanor,  that  one  might 
expect  to  meet  with  in  one  who  had  passed  the  greater  part  of  his 
life  in  courts." 


CHAPTER  III. 

As  we  have  already  remarked,  authors  are  very 
much  like  other  people,  rarely  coming  up  to  the  idea 
formed  of  them  by  enthusiastic  readers.  They  are 
pretty  sure  to  have  some  idiosyncrasies  more  or  less 
peculiar ;  and  who,  indeed,  has  not  ?  To  know  the 
true  character  of  these  individuals,  we  should  see 
them  in  their  homes  rather  than  in  their  books. 

Having  so  lately  spoken  of  Landor,  we  are  re- 
minded of  another  literary  character  who  in  many 
respects  resembled  him.  William  Beckford,  the  Eng- 
lish author,  utterly  despised  literary  fame,  and  when 
he  wrote  he  could  afford  to  do  so,  for  he  was  a  mil- 
lionnaire.  His  romance  of  "  Vathek,"  as  an  Eastern 
tale,  was  pronounced  by  the  critics  superior  to  "  Ras- 
selas;"  and  indeed  "  Rasselas,  Prince  of  Abyssinia," 
is  hardly  in  any  sense  an  Eastern  tale.  "  Johnson," 
says  Macaulay,  "  not  content  with  turning  filthy  sav- 
ages, ignorant  of  their  letters  and  gorged  with  raw 
steaks  cut  from  living  cows,  into  philosophers  as  elo- 
quent and  enlightened  as  himself  or  his  friend  Burke, 
and  into  ladies  as  accomplished  as  Mrs.  Lennox  or 
Mrs.  Sheridan,  transferred  the  whole  domestic  system 
of  England  to  Egypt."     Beckford  read  to  Rogers  one 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.  69 

of  his  novels  in  which  the  hero  was  a  Frenchman  who 
was  ridiculously  fond  of  dogs,  and  in  which  his  own 
life  was  clearly  depicted.  Even  this  millionnaire  au- 
thor was  finally  reduced  to  such  necessity  as  obliged 
him  to  sell  his  private  pictures  for  subsistence.  The 
last  which  he  disposed  of  was  Bellini's  portrait  of  the 
"  Doge  of  Venice,"  which  was  bought  for  and  hung  in 
the  National  Gallery  on  the  very  day  that  Beckford 
died,  in  1844. 

Certainly  those  authors  who  give  us  their  own  per- 
sonal experience  as  a  basis  for  their  sketches  are  no 
plagiarists.  The  late  Wendell  Phillips  '  delighted,  in 
his  lecture  on  the  "  Lost  Arts,"  to  prove  that  there  was 
nothing  new  under  the  sun ;  a  not  uncongenial  task 
for  this  "  silver-tongued  orator,"  who  was  an  icono- 
clast by  nature.  So  early  as  the  age  of  twenty-five 
he  relinquished  the  practice  of  the  law  because  he 
was  unwilling  to  act  under  an  oath  to  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States.  In  one  sense  there  is 
nothing  new  under  the  sun.  Genius  has  not  hesitated 
to  borrow  bravely  from  history  and  legend.  The 
"  Amphitrion  "  of  Moliere  was  adopted  from  Plautus, 
who  had  borrowed  it  from  the  Greeks,  and  they  from 
the  Indians.  Any  one  reading  a  collection  of  the 
Arabian  stories  for  the  first  time  will  be  surprised 
at  meeting  so  many  which  are  familiar,  and  which  he 

^  This  man  scornfully  renounces  your  civil  organizations,  — 
county  and  city,  or  governor  or  army;  is  his  own  navy  and  artil- 
lery, judge  and  jury,  legislature  and  executive.  He  has  learned 
his  lessons  in  a  bitter  school.  —  Emerson. 


70  GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

had  thought  to  be  of  modern  birth.  La  Fontaine 
borrowed  from  Petronius  the  "  Ephesian  Matron," 
which  had  been  taken  from  Greek  annals,  having 
been  previously  transferred  from  the  Arabic,  where 
it  appeared  taken  from  the  Chinese.  There  is  no 
ignoring  the  fact  that  a  large  portion  of  our  plots 
belonged  originally  to  Eastern  nations.  The  grace- 
ful, attractive,  and  patriotic  story  of  William  Tell 
was  proven  by  the  elder  son  of  Haller,  a  century  ago, 
to  have  been,  in  the  main  features,  but  the  revival  of  a 
Danish  story  to  be  found  in  Saxo  Grammaticus.  The 
interesting  legend  of  the  apple  was  but  a  fable  re- 
vived. The  English  story  of  Whittington  and  his 
Cat  was  common  two  thousand  years  ago  in  Persia. 

When  the  writer  of  these  pages  visited  the  grand 
temples  of  Nikko,  in  the  interior  of  Japan,  he  was 
told  that  the  wonderfully  preserved  carvings  beneath 
the  eaves  and  on  the  inner  walls,  thousands  of  years 
old,  were  executed  by  one  who  was  known  as  the 
"  Left-Handed  Artist,"  who  was  a  dwarf,  and  had  but 
partial  use  of  the  right  hand.  It  seems,  according  to 
the  local  legend  preserved  for  so  many  centuries,  that 
while  this  artist  was  working  at  the  ornamentation 
of  the  temples  at  Nikko  he  saw  and  fell  in  love  with 
a  beautiful  Japanese  girl  resident  in  the  city ;  for 
Nikko  was  then  a  city  of  half  a  million,  though  now 
but  a  straggling  village.  The  girl  would  have  noth- 
ing to  do  with  the  artist,  on  account  of  his  defor- 
mity of  person.  All  his  attempts  to  win  her  affection 
were  vain;   she  was  inflexible.    Finally  the  heart- 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.  71 

broken  artist  returned  to  Tokio,  bis  native  place. 
Here  he  carved  in  wood  a  life-size  figure  of  his 
beloved,  so  perfect  and  beautiful  that  the  gods  en- 
dowed it  with  life,  and  the  sculptor  lived  with  it 
as  his  wife,  in  the  enjoyment  of  mutual  love,  all  the 
rest  of  his  days.  Here,  then,  in  Japan,  we  have  the 
legend  upon  which  the  Greek  story  of  Pygmalion  and 
Galatea  is  undoubtedly  founded. 

As  regards  the  subject  of  plagiarism  in  general, 
which  is  so  often  spoken  of  as  connected  with  literary 
productions,  it  should  be  remembered,  as  Ruskin  says, 
that  all  men  who  have  sense  and  feeling  are  being 
constantly  helped.  They  are  taught  by  every  person 
whom  they  meet,  and  enriched  by  everything  that 
falls  in  their  way.  The  greatest  is  he  who  has  been 
oftenest  aided. ^  "  Literature  is  full  of  coincidences," 
says  Holmes,  "  which  some  love  to  believe  plagiarisms. 
There  are  thoughts  always  abroad  in  the  air,  which  it 
takes  more  wit  to  avoid  than  to  hit  upon." 

It  has  been  truthfully  said  that  no  man  is  quite 
sane  ;  each  one  has  a  vein  of  folly  in  his  composition, 
a  view  which  would  certainly  seem  to  be  illustrated 

^  "  Every  one  of  my  ■writings,"  says  Goethe,  "  has  been  fur- 
nished to  me  by  a  thousand  different  persons,  by  a  thousand  differ- 
ent things.  The  learned  and  the  ignorant,  the  wise  and  the  foolish, 
infancy  and  age,  have  come  in  turn,  generally  without  having 
been  the  least  suspicious  of  it,  to  bring  me  the  offering  of  their 
thoughts,  their  faculties,  their  experience ;  often  have  they  sown 
the  harvest  I  have  reaped.  My  work  is  that  of  an  aggregation 
of  human  beings  taken  from  the  whole  of  nature  ;  it  bears  the 
name  of  Goethe." 


72  GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

by  circumstances  which  are  easily  recalled.  Take, 
for  instance,  the  fact  that  Schiller  ^  could  not  write 
unless  surrounded  by  the  scent  of  decayed  apples, 
with  which  he  kept  one  drawer  of  his  writing-desk 
well  filled.  Could  we  have  a  clearer  instance  of  mo- 
nomania ?  He  also  required  his  cup  of  strong  coffee 
when  he  was  composing,  and  the  coffee  was  well 
"  laced  "  with  brandy.  Bulwer-Lytton,  in  his  life  of 
Schiller,  declares  that  when  he  wrote  at  night  he 
drank  hock  wine.  As  an  opposite  and  much  more 
agreeable  habit,  we  have  that  of  Mehul,  the  French 
composer,  and  author  of  over  forty  successful  operas, 
who  could  not  produce  a  note  of  original  music  ex- 
cept amid  the  perfume  of  roses.  His  table,  writing- 
desk,  and  piano  were  constantly  covered  with  them ; 
in  this  delicious  atmosphere  he  produced  his  "  Joseph 
in  Egypt,"  which  alone  would  have  entitled  him  to 
undving  fame. 

Father  Sarpi,  who  was  Macaulay's  favorite  histo- 
rian, best  known  as  the  author  of  the  "  History  of  the 
Council  of  Trent,"  having  the  idea  that  the  atmos- 
phere immediately  about  him  became  in  a  degree 
impregnated  with  the  mental  electricity  of  his  brain, 
was  accustomed  to  build  a  paper  enclosure  about  his 
head  and  person  while  he  was  writing.     "  All  air  is 

^  When  only  eighteen  years  of  age,  in  1777,  he  wrote  "The 
Robbers,"  a  tragedy  of  extraordinary  power,  though  he  character- 
ized it  at  a  later  day  as  "  a  monster  for  which  fortunately  there 
was  no  original."  During  a  few  years  after  its  first  publication  it 
was  translated  into  various  languages  and  read  all  over  Europe. 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.  73 

predatory,"  he  said.  Salieri,  the  Venetian  composer, 
prepared  himself  for  writing  by  filling  a  capacious 
dish  at  his  side  with  candy  and  bonbons,  which  he 
consumed  in  large  quantities  during  the  process. 
Sarti,  the  well-known  composer  of  sacred  music,  was 
obliged  to  work  in  the  dark,  or  thought  that  he  was, 
as  daylight  or  artificial  light  of  any  sort  at  such 
moments  utterly  disconcerted  him.  Rossini,  on  the 
contrary,  seemed  to  have  no  special  ideas  about  his 
surroundings  when  he  was  in  a  mood  for  composing. 
He  sat  down  among  his  friends,  laughing  and  talking 
all  the  while  that  he  was  creating,  and  framing  with 
marvellous  rapidity  strains  that  will  live  for  all  time. 
The  whole  of  "  Tancredi,"  which  first  made  his  fame, 
was  produced  in  the  very  midst  of  social  life  and 
merry  companionship.  He  said  he  found  inspiration 
in  the  cheerful  human  voices  about  him.  As  to  the 
peculiarities  we  have  noted  in  others,  they  must  at 
first  have  been  mere  affectations  ;  but  such  is  the 
force  of  habit,  that  no  doubt  these  individuals  became 
confirmed  in  them  and  really  believed  their  indul- 
gence a  necessity. 

Carneades,  the  Greek  philosopher,  so  famed  for  his 
subtle  and  powerful  eloquence,  before  sitting  down  to 
write  dosed  himself  with  hellebore, — a  strange  resort, 
as  it  is  supposed  to  act  directly  upon  the  liver,  and 
only  very  slightly  to  stimulate  the  brain,  besides  being 
a  fatal  poison  in  large  doses.  It  is  well  known  that 
Dryden  resorted  to  singular  aids  as  preparatory  to 
literary  composition ;  being  in  the  habit  of  first  having 


74  GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

himself  bled  and  then  making  a  meal  of  raw  meat. 
The  former  process,  he  contended,  rendered  his  brain 
clear,  and  the  latter  stimulated  his  imagination.  In 
1668  he  held  the  position  now  filled  by  Tennyson,  as 
poet-laureate  of  England.  He  was  a  notable  instance 
of  power  in  poetry,  satire,  and  indecency,  whom  Cow- 
per  characterized  as  a  lewd  writer  but  a  chaste  com- 
panion. Dryden's  own  couplet  will  forcibly  apply  to 
himself :  — 

"  0  gracious  God  !  how  far  have  we 
Profaned  thy  heavenly  gift  of  poesy  !  " 

His  "  Essay  on  Dramatic  Poesy,"  according  to  Dr. 
Johnson,  entitled  him  to  be  considered  the  father  of 
English  criticism.  His  dramas,  such  as  "  Mariage 
a-la-Mode,"  "  All  for  Love,"  "  Don  Sebastian,"  etc., 
were,  by  reason  of  their  indecency,  examples  of  per- 
verted genius.  He  was  sixty-six  years  old  when  he 
wrote  his  "  Alexander's  Feast,"  by  far  his  best  liter- 
ary effort.  While  Macaulay  calls  him  "  an  illustrious 
renegade,"  ^  Dr.  Johnson  says,  "  he  found  the  English 

1  Such  facts  as  the  following  lead  us  to  draw  rather  disparaging 
conclusions  as  to  Dryden's  character.  He  was  short  of  money  at 
a  certain  time,  and  sent  to  Jacob  Tonson,  his  publisher,  asking 
him  to  advance  him  some,  which  Tonson  declined  to  do ;  where- 
upon Dryden  sent  him  these  lines,  adding,  "  Tell  the  dog  that  he 
who  wrote  these  can  write  more  " :  — 

"With  leering  looks,  bull-faced,  and  freclded  skin, 
With  two  left  legs,  and  Judas-colored  hair, 
And  frowzy  pores,  that  taint  the  ambient  air  !  " 

The  bookseller  felt  the  force  of  the  description,  and  to  avoid 
trouble  immediately  sent  the  insulting  poet  the  money. 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.  75 

language  brick  and  left  it  marble,"  —  a  most  super- 
lative and  ridiculous  comment  to  be  made  hj  so 
erudite  a  critic. 

When  James  Francis  Stephens,  the  English  ento- 
mologist, was  about  to  write,  he  mounted  a  horse 
and  arranged  his  thoughts  and  sentences  while  at 
full  gallop.  This  was  a  plan  that  Sir  Walter  Scott 
also  adopted  when  he  wrote  "  Marmion,"  galloping 
up  and  down  the  shore  of  the  Firth  of  Forth.  But  he 
concluded  that  he  could  do  better  pen-work  in  a  more 
rational  manner,  so  this  practice  did  not  become 
habitual  with  him.  Scott  made  an  interesting  con- 
fession when  writing  the  third  volume  of  "  Wood- 
stock." He  declared  that  he  had  not  the  slightest 
idea  how  the  story  was  to  be  wound  up  to  a  catastro- 
phe. He  said  he  could  never  lay  out  a  plan  for  a 
novel  and  stick  to  it.  "  I  only  tried  to  make  tliat 
which  I  wrote  diverting  and  interesting,  leaving  the 
rest  to  fate."  Sir  David  Dalrymple  (afterwards  Lord 
Hailes)  was  a  voluminous  author  on  historical  and 
antiquarian  subjects.  His  "  Annals  of  Scotland," 
published  in  1792,  was  his  most  important  work  ;  Dr. 
Johnson  called  it  "  a  book  which  will  always  sell,  it 
has  such  a  stability  of  dates,  such  a  certainty  of  facts, 
and  such  punctuality  of  citation."  Lord  Hailes's 
mode  of  writing  was  very  domestic,  so  to  speak,  being 
performed  by  the  parlor  fire,  and  amid  his  family 
circle  of  wife  and  children.  He  was  always  ready  to 
answer  any  appeal,  however  trifling,  and  to  enter 
cheerfully  into  all  current  family  affairs.     This  seems 


76  GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

hardly  reconcilable  with  the  extreme  nicety  and  abso- 
lute correctness  of  his  work. 

Cormontaigne,  the  French  military  engineer,  wrote 
an  elaborate  treatise  on  fortification  in  the  trenches 
and  while  under  fire.  The  Duke  of  Wellington, 
when  his  army  was  at  San  Christoval  awaiting  battle 
with  the  French,  wrote  a  complete  essay  on  the  pur- 
pose of  establishing  a  bank  at  Lisbon  after  the  Eng- 
lish methods.  Thomas  Hood  wrote  at  night,  when 
the  house  was  still  and  the  children  asleep.  Ouida  ^ 
writes  with  her  dogs  only  as  companions,  while  they 
lie  contentedly  at  her  feet  in  the  bright  sunny  library 
whose  windows  overlook  the  valley  of  the  Arno  and 
her  well-beloved  Florence.  In  the  flower-garden 
before  the  villa  her  favorite  Newfoundland  dog,  not 
long  since  dead,  lies  buried  beneath  a  marble  monu- 
ment. Her  productive  literary  capacity  is  wonderfully 
rapid,  but  the  demand  far  exceeds  it,  and  the  prices 
she  receives  are  unprecedented.  She  has  few  if  any 
intimate  friends,  and  no  confidants,  leading  a  life  of 
almost  perfect  isolation. 

Notwithstanding  common-sense  and  experience  have 
ever  taught  that  the  brain  is  capable  of  producing 
its  best  work  when  in  its  normal  condition,  still  a 
host  of  writers  have  resorted  systematically  to  some 

^  The  real  name  of  this  lady  is  Louise  de  la  Rame.  Her  father 
was  a  Frenchman  and  her  mother  of  English  birth.  The  name 
of  "  Ouida "  is  an  infantine  corruption  of  her  baptismal  name 
Louise.  Her  first  episode  in  love  occurred  when  she  was  a 
maiden  of  forty  years,  resulting  finally  in  a  most  embittering  dis- 
appointment. 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SUADOW.  77 

sort  of  artificial  stimulant  to  aid  them  in  authorship. 
History  tells  us  that  ^Eschylus,  Eupolis,  Cratinus,  and 
Ennius,  in  the  olden  time,  would  not  attempt  to  com- 
pose until  they  had  become  nearly  intoxicated  with 
wine.  In  more  modern  times,  we  know  that  Shadwell, 
De  Quincey,  Psalmanazar  the  famous  literary  im- 
postor, Coleridge,  Robert  Hall,  and  Bishop  Horsley 
stimulated  themselves  with  fabulous  doses  of  opium. 
Alfred  de  Musset,  Burns,  Edgar  A.  Poe,  Dickens, 
Christopher  North,  and  a  host  of  others  whose  names 
will  only  too  readily  occur  to  the  reader,  were  reckless 
as  to  the  use  of  alcohol.  They  were  both  fed  and 
consumed  by  stimulants.  We  are  inclined,  however, 
to  forgive  much  of  indiscretion  in  a  brilliant  and  ar- 
dent imagination.  Schiller,  so  lately  referred  to,  was 
addicted  to  Rhenish  wine  in  large  quantities.  Black- 
stone,  author  of  "  Commentaries  on  the  Laws  of 
England,"  remarkable  for  his  clearness  and  ])urity 
of  style,  never  wrote  without  a  bottle  of  port  by  his 
side,  which  he  emptied  at  a  sitting. 

It  is  related  of  Bacon  that  he  did  not  drink  wine 
when  engaged  in  pen-craft,  but  he  was  accustomed 
to  have  sherry  poured  into  a  broad  open  vessel,  and  to 
inhale  its  fragrance  with  great  relish.  He  believed 
that  his  brain  thus  received  the  stimulating  influence 
without  the  narcotic  effect.  Sheridan  could  neither 
write  nor  talk  until  warmed  by  wine.  If  about  to 
make  a  speech  in  the  House,  he  would,  just  before 
rising,  swallow  half  a  tumbler  of  raw  brandy.  Burke 
presents  a  remarkable  contrast;  his  great  stimulant 


78  GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

being  hot  water.  The  most  impassioned  passages  of 
his  speeches  had  no  other  pliysical  inspiration ;  all  the 
rest  came  from  his  glowing  soul,  which  was  powerful 
enough  to  vitalize  his  body  for  an  oration  of  four  hours' 
length.  The  food  which  sustained  him  on  such  occa- 
sions was  cold  mutton,  the  drink  being  hot  water. 
Brandy  and  port,  even  claret  and  champagne,  would 
have  driven  him  wild,  though  they  were  the  ordinary 
stimulants  of  his  contemporaries.  Burke  was,  like 
Burns,  a  man  of  an  excitable  temperament ;  but,  unlike 
Burns,  he  was  wise  enough  to  avoid  all  dangerous 
alcoholic  excitements,  whicli  increased  the  impulsive 
elements  of  his  nature  and  diminished  the  action 
of  his  reason.  It  will  be  observed  that  even  in  the 
occasional  violence  of  his  invective,  his  passion  is 
still  reasoned  passion,  or  reason  penetrated  by  pas- 
sion, so  as  to  reach  the  will  as  well  as  to  convince  the 
understanding. 

Addison,  with  his  bottle  of  wine  at  each  end  of  the 
long  gallery  at  Holland  House,  where  he  walked  back 
and  forth  perfecting  his  thoughts,  will  be  sure  to  be 
recalled  by  the  reader  in  this  connection.  Consciously 
or  unconsciously  he  took  a  glass  of  the  stimulant  at 
each  turn,  until  wrought  up  to  the  required  point. 
Dr.  Radcliffe,  the  eminent  London  physician  and 
author,  was  often  found  in  an  over-stimulated  condi- 
tion. Summoned  one  evening  to  a  lady  patient,  he 
found  that  he  was  too  much  inebriated  to  count  her 
pulse,  and  so  muttered,  "  Drunk !  dead  drunk  !  "  and 
hastened  homeward.     The   next  morning,  while  ex- 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.  79 

periencing  intense  mortification  over  the  recollection, 
he  received  a  note  from  the  same  patient,  in  which 
she  said,  she  knew  only  too  well  her  own  condition 
when  he  called,  and  begged  him  to  keep  the  matter 
secret,  enclosing  a  hundred-pound  note. 

Burns  was  wont  oftentimes  to  compose,  as  he  tells 
us,  "  by  the  lee  side  of  a  bowl  of  punch,  which  had 
overset  every  mortal  in  the  company  except  the  haut- 
boy and  the  Muse."  ^  Of  course  "  the  pernicious  expedi- 
ent of  stimulants,"  as  Carlyle  would  say,  only  served 
to  use  up  more  rapidly  his  already  wasted  physical 
strength.  Sometimes,  however.  Burns  would  com- 
pose walking  in  the  open  fields.  His  first  effort  was 
to  master  some  pleasing  air,  and  then  he  easily  pro- 
duced appropriate  words  for  it.  One  noble  trait  of 
Burns's  character  should  not  be  forgotten.  Though 
he  died  in  abject  poverty,  he  did  not  leave  a  farthing 
of  debt  owed  to  any  one.  Nothing  could  be  finer  than 
Carlylc's  exordium  in  his  review  of  Lockhart's  "  Life 
of  Burns  :"  "  With  our  readers  in  general,  with  men 
of  right  feeling  anywhere,  we  are  not  required  to  plead 
for  Burns.  In  pitying  admiration  he  lies  enshrined 
in  all  our  hearts,  in  a  far  nobler  mausoleum  than  that 
one  of  marble;  neither  will  his  works  ever  as  they 

^  Burns  realized  his  own  unfortunate  lack  of  self-control,  but  he 
gives  good  advice  to  others,  as  follows  :  — 

"  Reader,  attend  !    Whetlier  thy  soul 
Soars  fancy's  flights  beyond  the  pole, 
Or  darkling  grubs  this  earthly  hole 

In  low  pursuit,  — 
Know,  prudent,  cautious  self-control 
Is  wisdom's  root.'' 


80  GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

are,  pass  away  from  the  memory  of  men.  While  the 
Shakspeares  and  Miltons  roll  on  like  mighty  rivers 
through  the  country  of  Thought,  bearing  fleets  of 
traffickers  and  assiduous  pearl-fishers  on  their  waves, 
this  little  Valclusa  Fountain  will  also  arrest  our  eye ; 
for  this  also  is  of  Nature's  own  and  most  cunning 
workmanship,  bursts  from  the  depths  of  the  earth, 
with  a  full  gushing  current,  into  the  light  of  day ;  and 
often  will  the  traveller  turn  aside  to  drink  of  its  clear 
waters,  and  muse  among  its  rocks  and  pines." 

As  we  have  seen,  musical  composers,  like  those 
devoted  to  literature,  are  apt  to  have  singular  fancies. 
Gliick,  who  was  at  one  time  the  music-teacher  of 
Marie  Antoinette,  and  whose  operas  have  entitled  him 
to  a  niche  in  the  temple  of  fame,  could  compose  only 
while  under  the  influence  of  champagne,  two  bottles 
of  which  he  would  consume  at  a  sitting.  He  was  an 
eccentric  individual,  singing  and  acting  the  part  for 
which  he  at  the  same  time  wrote  the  music.  Handel, 
when  he  felt  the  inspiration  of  music  upon  him,  sought 
the  graveyard  of  some  village  church,  and  on  the 
moss-grown  stones  laid  his  portfolio  and  wrote  his 
notes,  never  trying  their  harmony  until  he  had  com- 
pleted the  entire  piece.  It  seems  strange  to  us,  in  the 
light  of  his  great  genius,  to  think  what  an  immense 
glutton  Handel  was,  "We  have  already  spoken  of 
this,  but  recur  to  it  again  in  this  connection;  for 
one  is  puzzled  how  to  reconcile  the  grossness  of  his 
appetite  with  his  aesthetic  nature.  He  could  devour 
more  food  at  one  dinner  than  any  other  composer  in 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.  81 

three.^  Never  before  was  height  and  breadth  of 
musical  genius  combined  with  such  enormous  appe- 
tite for  the  good  things  of  the  table  ;  and  yet  his 
digestion  was  as  sound  as  his  love  and  need  of  food 
was  portentous.  Everything  about  this  great  com- 
poser was  gigantesque,  as  became  a  giant.  His  for- 
getive  brain  was  recruited  by  the  nourishment  drawn 
from  a  ravenous  yet  healthy  stomach. 

Unlike  Handel's  mode  of  composition,  Mozart 
played  his  music  upon  the  harpsichord  before  he 
wrote  a  note  of  it  upon  paper;  but  he  had  a  most 
exalted  idea  of  his  mission,  and  prepared  himself 
for  composition,  not  by  partaking  of  a  hearty  dinner, 
but  by  reading  favorite  classic  authors  for  hours 
before  beginning  what  was  to  him  a  sacred  task. 
His  favorite  authors  on  such  occasions  were  Dante 
and  Petrarch.  He  chose  the  morning  for  his  com- 
positions ;  but  he  would  often  delay  writing  his 
scores  for  the  musicians  until  it  was  too  late  to  copy 
them,  and  sometimes  failed  altogether  to  write  out 
the  part  intended  to  be  performed  by  himself;  yet 
when  the  moment  arrived,  so  perfectly  had  all  been 
arranged  in  his  mind,  he  played  it  without  hesi- 
tation, instrument  in  hand.  The  Emperor  Joseph, 
before  whom  he  was  performing  on  one  occasion, 
observed  that  the  music-sheet  before  him  contained 

^  It  is  said  to  have  been  when  Handel's  great  appetite  was 
being  spoken  of  as  rather  at  antipodes  with  his  glorious  musical 
conceptions,  that  Sydney  Smith  remarked,  "  his  own  idea  of 
heaven  was  eating  foie  gras  to  the  sound  of  trumpets  !  " 

6 


82  GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

no  characters  whatever,  and  asked,  "  Where  is 
your  part  ? "  "  Here,"  replied  Mozart,  pointing  with 
his  finger  to  his  forehead.^  He  became  blind  before 
he  was  forty  years  of  age,  but  continued  to  compose. 
The  duet  and  chorus  in  "  Judas  Maccaba3us,"  and 
some  others  of  his  finest  efforts  were  produced  after 
his  total  deprivation  of  sight;  nor  did  he  cease  to 
conduct  his  oratorios  in  public  on  account  of  his 
blindness. 

Spontini,  the  Italian  composer,  like  Sarti,  could  only 
produce  his  music  in  the  dark,  dictating  to  some 
one  sitting  in  an  adjoining  room.  Rossini,  author 
of  the  "  Barber  of  Seville,"  composed  his  music  as 
the  elder  Dumas  was  accustomed  to  write ;  namely, 
in  bed.  Offenbach,  of  opera-bouffe  notoriety,  almost 
lived  on  coffee  while  creating  his  dainty  aerial  music. 
The  writer  of  these  pages  met  this  composer  in  Paris 
in  1873,  when  he  was  at  the  height  of  his  popularity, 
and  was  told  by  him  that  he  took  no  wine  or  spirit 
until  after  his  work  of  composition  was  completed. 
Cimarosa,  the  Italian  composer,  who  won  national  fame 
before  he  was  twenty-five,  derived  his  inspiration  from 
the  noisy  crowd.  Auber,  the  French  composer,  could 
write  only  among  the  green  fields  and  the  silence  of  the 
country.     Sacchini,  another  Italian  composer,  lost  the 

*  The  overture  to  "  Don.  Giovanni,"  generally  considered  to 
be  the  best  portion  of  the  opera,  was  -m-itten  by  Mozart  in  two 
hours,  he  having  overslept  himself.  It  was  copied  in  great  haste 
by  the  scribes,  and  actually  played  for  the  first  time  without 
rehearsal. 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.  83 

thread  of  his  inspiration  unless  attended  by  his  favor- 
rite  cats,  they  sitting  all  about  him  while  he  worked, 
some  upon  the  table,  some  on  the  floor,  and  one 
always  perched  contentedly  between  his  shoulders  on 
his  neck ;  he  declared  that  their  purring  was  to  him  a 
soothing  anodyne,  and  fitted  him  for  composition  by 
making  him  content.  Eugene  Sue  would  not  take 
up  his  pen  except  in  full  dress  and  with  white  kids 
on  his  hands.  Thus  he  produced  the  "  Mysteries  of 
Paris,"  which  Dumas  designated  as  "  one-gross-of- 
gloves  long."  Buffon  would  only  sit  down  to  write 
after  taking  a  bath  and  donning  pure  linen  with 
a  full  frilled  bosom.  Haydn  ^  declared  that  he 
could  not  compose  unless  he  wore  the  large  seal-ring 
which  Frederick  the  Great  had  given  him.  He  would 
sit  wrapped  in  silence  for  an  hour  or  more,  after 
which  he  would  seize  his  pen  and  write  rapidly  with- 
out touching  a  musical  instrument ;  and  he  rarely 
altered  a  line.  In  early  life,  poor,  freezing  in  a  mis- 
erable garret,  he  studied  the  rudiments  of  his  fa- 
vorite art  by  the  side  of  an  old  broken  harpsichord. 
For  a  period  of  six  years  he  endured  a  bitter  con- 
flict with  poverty,  being  often  compelled  for  the  sake 
of  warmth  to  lie  in  bed  most  of  the  day  as  well  as 
the  night.     Finally  he  was  relieved  from  this  thral- 

^  The  poet  Carpani  once  asked  his  friend  Haydn  how  it  hap- 
pened that  his  church  music  was  of  so  animating  and  cheerful  a 
character.  "  I  cannot  make  it  otherwise,"  replied  the  composer  ; 
"  I  write  according  to  the  thoughts  which  I  feel.  TVhen  I  think 
of  God,  my  heart  is  so  full  of  joy  that  the  notes  dance  and  leap 
as  it  were  from  my  pen." 


84  GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

dom  by  the  generosity  of  his  patron,  Prince  Ester- 
hazy,  a  passionate  lover  of  music,  who  appointed  him 
his  chapel-master,  with  a  salary  sufficient  to  keep 
him  supplied  with  the  ordinary  comforts  of  life. 

Cr^billon  the  elder,  a  celebrated  lyric  poet  and 
member  of  the  French  Academy,  was  enamoured  of 
solitude,  and  could  only  write  effectively  under  such 
circumstances.  His  imagination  teemed  with  ro- 
mances, and  he  produced  eight  or  ten  dramas  which 
enjoyed  popularity  in  their  day,  —  about  1776.  One 
day,  when  he  was  alone  and  in  a  deep  reverie,  a  friend 
entered  his  study  hastily.  "  Don't  disturb  me,"  cried 
the  author,  "  I  am  enjoying  a  moment  of  happiness: 
I  am  going  to  hang  a  villain  of  a  minister,  and  banish 
another  who  is  an  idiot." 

We  have  lately  mentioned  Dumas.  Hans  Christian 
Andersen,  speaking  of  the  various  habits  of  authors, 
thus  refers  to  the  elder  Dumas,  with  whom  he  was 
intimate  :  "  I  generally  found  him  in  bed,"  even  long 
after  mid-day,  where  he  lay,  with  pen,  ink,  and  paper 
by  his  side,  and  wrote  his  newest  drama.  On  enter- 
ing his  apartment  I  found  him  thus  one  day  ;  he 
nodded  kindly  to  me,  and  said  :  '  Sit  down  a  minute. 
I  have  just  now  a  visit  from  my  Muse  ;  she  will 
be  going  directly.'  He  wrote  on,  and  after  a  brief 
silence  shouted  '  Vivat^  sprang  out  of  bed,  and  said, 
'  The  third  act  is  finished ! '  "  i 

^  Dumas  was  a  charming  story-teller  in  society.  Being  at  a 
large  party  one  evening,  the  hostess  tried  to  draw  him  out  to  ex- 
hibit his  powers  in  this  line.    At  last,  weary  of  being  importuned, 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.  85 

Lamartine  was  peculiar  in  his  mode  of  composition, 
and  never  saw  his  productions,  after  the  first  draft, 
until  they  were  printed,  bound,  and  issued  to  the  pub- 
lic. He  was  accustomed  to  walk  forth  in  his  park 
during  the  after  part  of  the  day,  or  of  a  moonlit 
evening,  with  pencil  and  pieces  of  paper,  and  what- 
ever ideas  struck  him  he  recorded.  That  was  the 
end  of  the  matter  so  far  as  he  was  concerned.  These 
pieces  of  paper  he  threw  into  a  special  box,  without 
a  number  or  title  upon  them.  His  literary  secre- 
tary with  much  patient  ability  assorted  these  papers, 
arranged  them  as  he  thought  best,  and  sold  them  to 
the  publishers  at  a  royal  price.  We  know  of  no  simi- 
lar instance  where  authorship  and  recklessness  com- 
bined have  produced  creditable  results.  Certainly 
such  indifference  argued  only  the  presence  of  weak- 
ness and  irresponsibility,  which  were  indeed  promi- 
nent characteristics  of  Lamartine. 

The  remarkable  facility  with  which  Goethe's  poems 
were  produced  is  said  to  have  resembled  improvisation, 
an  inspiration  almost  independent  of  his  own  purposes. 
"  I  had  come,"  he  says,  "  to  regard  the  poetic  talent 
dwelling  in  me  entirely  as  nature  ;  the  rather  that 
I  was  directed  to  look  upon  external  nature  as  its 
proper  subject.  The  exercise  of  this  poetic  gift  might 
be   stimulated   and   determined   by  occasion,   but   it 

he  said  :  "Every  one  to  his  trade,  madam.  The  gentleman  who 
entered  your  drawing-room  just  before  me  is  a  distinguished  artil- 
lery officer.  Let  him  bring  a  cannon  here  and  fire  it ;  then  I  will 
tell  one  of  my  Httle  stories." 


86  GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

flowed  forth  more  joyfully  and  richly,  when  it  came 
involuntarily,  or  even  against  my  will."  Addison, 
whose  style  is  perhaps  the  nearest  to  perfection  in 
ancient  or  modern  literature,  "did  not  reach  that  stan- 
dard without  much  patient  labor.  Pope  tells  us  that 
"he  would  show  his  verses  to  several  friends,  and 
would  alter  nearly  everything  that  any  of  them  hinted 
was  wrong.  He  seemed  to  be  distrustful  of  himself, 
and  too  much  concerned  about  his  character  as  a  poet, 
or,  as  he  expressed  it,  '  too  solicitous  for  that  kind  of 
praise  which  God  knows  is  a  very  little  matter  after 
all.'  "  Pope  himself  published  nothing  until  it  had 
been  a  twelvemonth  on  hand,  and  even  then  the  print- 
er's proofs  were  full  of  alterations.  On  one  occasion 
this  was  carried  so  far  that  Dodsley,  his  publisher, 
thought  it  better  to  have  the  whole  recomposed  than 
to  attempt  to  make  the  necessary  alterations.  Yet 
Pope  admits  that  "the  things  that  I  have  written 
fastest  have  always  pleased  the  most.  I  wrote  the 
*  Essay  on  Criticism '  fast,  for  I  had  digested  all  the 
matter  in  prose  before  I  began  it  in  verse." 

"  I  never  work  better,"  says  Luther,  "  than  when  I 
am  inspired  by  anger :  when  I  am  angry,  I  can  write, 
pray,  and  preach  well ;  for  then  my  whole  tempera- 
ment is  quickened,  my  understanding  sharpened,  and 
all  mundane  vexations  and  temptations  depart." 
We  are  reminded  of  Burke's  remark  in  this  connec- 
tion :  "  A  vigorous  mind  is  as  necessarily  accom- 
panied with  violent  passions  as  a  great  fire  with 
great  heat."     Luther,  however  ribald  he  may  have 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.  87 

been  at  times,  had  the  zeal  of  honesty.  There  was 
not  a  particle  of  vanity  or  self-sufficiency  in  the  great 
reformer.  "  Do  not  call  yourselves  Lutherans,"  he 
said  to  his  followers ;  "  call  yourselves  Christians. 
Who  and  what  is  Luther  ?  Has  Luther  been  crucified 
for  the  world  ? " 

Churchill  ,1  the  English  poet  and  satirist,  was  so 
averse  to  correcting  and  blotting  his  manuscript  that 
many  errors  were  unexpunged,  and  many  lines  which 
might  easily  have  been  improved  were  neglected. 
When  expostulated  with  upon  this  subject  by  his  pub- 
lisher, he  replied  that  erasures  were  to  him  like  cut- 
ting away  so  much  of  his  flesh ;  thus  expressing  his 
utter  repugnance  to  an  author's  most  urgent  duty. 
Though  Macaulay  tells  us  that  his  vices  were  not  so 
great  as  his  virtues,  still  he  was  dissipated  and  licen- 
tious. Cowper  was  a  great  admirer  of  his  poetry,  and 
called  him  "  the  great  Churchill."  George  Wither ,2 
the  English  poet,  satirist,  and  political  writer,  was 
compelled  to  watch  and  fast  when  he  was  called  upon 
to  write.  He  "went  out  of  himself,"  as  he  said,  at 
such  times,  and  if  he  tasted  meat  or  drank  one  glass 
of  wine  he  could  not  produce  a  verse  or  sentence. 

Rogers,  who  wrote  purely  con  amove,  took  all  the 
time  to  perfect  his  work  which  his  fancy  dictated,  and 

^  Churchill  was  a  spendthrift  of  fame,  and  enjoyed  all  his 
revenue  while  he  lived  ;  posterity  owes  him  little,  and  pays  him 
nothing.  —  Disraeli. 

2  Wither  had  a  strange  career.  He  was  imprisoned  for  some 
published  satire  in  1613,  at  the  age  of  twenty-five,  but  lived  to  his 
eightieth  year,  dying  finally  in  misery  and  obsciirity. 


88  GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

certainly  over-refined  many  of  his  compositions.  The 
"  Pleasures  of  Memory  "  occupied  him  seven  years. 
In  writing,  composing,  re-writing,  and  altering  his 
"  Columbus  "  and  "  Human  Life,"  each  required  just 
double  that  period  of  time  before  the  fastidious  au- 
thor felt  satisfied  to  call  it  finished.  Besides  this,  the 
second  edition  of  each  went  through  another  series 
of  emendations.  The  observant  reader  will  find  that 
Rogers  has  often  weakened  his  first  and  best  thoughts 
by  this  elaboration.  The  expression  of  true  genius 
oftenest  comes,  like  the  lightning,  in  its  full  power 
and  effect  at  the  first  flash.  "  Every  event  that  a  man 
would  master,"  says  Holmes,  "  must  be  mounted  on 
the  run,  and  no  man  ever  caught  the  reins  of  a  thought 
except  as  it  galloped  by  him."  One  who  has  had 
years  of  active  editorial  experience  on  the  daily  press 
can  hardly  conceive  of  such  fastidious  slowness  of 
composition  as  characterizes  some  authors.  Sir  Joshua 
Reynolds,  in  speaking  of  Rogers,  Rochefoucauld,  Cow- 
per,  and  others,  and  their  dilatory  habits  of  compo- 
sition, says,  that  although  men  of  ordinary  talents 
may  be  highly  satisfied  with  their  productions,  men  of 
genius  never  are,  —  an  assumption  which  is  not  borne 
out  by  facts,  as  we  shall  have  occasion  to  show  in 
these  chapters.  Modesty  is  not  always  the  character- 
istic of  genius ;  and  very  few  popular  writers  are  with- 
out a  due  share  of  vanity  in  their  natures. 

Voltaire  somewhere  says  that  an  author  should 
write  with  the  rapidity  which  genius  inspires,  but 
should   correct   with    care    and  deliberation ;   which 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.  89 

doubtless  expresses  the  process  adopted  by  this  un- 
scrupulous but  versatile  writer,  of  whom  Carljle  said  : 
"  With  the  single  exception  of  Luther,  there  is  per- 
haps, in  these  modern  ages,  no  other  man  of  a  merely 
intellectual  character,  whose  influence  and  reputation 
have  become  so  entirely  European  as  that  of  Voltaire." 
Sydney  Smith  was  so  rapid  a  producer  that  he  had 
not  patience  even  to  read  over  his  compositions  when 
finished.  He  would  throw  down  his  manuscript  and 
say  :  "  There,  it  is  done  ;  now,  Kate,  do  look  it  over, 
and  put  dots  to  the  i's  and  strokes  to  the  f  s."  He 
was  once  advised  by  a  fashionable  publisher  to  attempt 
a  three-volume  novel.  "  Well,"  said  he,  after  some 
seeming  consideration,  "  if  I  do  so,  I  must  have  an 
archdeacon  for  my  hero,  to  fall  in  love  with  the  pew- 
opener,  with  the  clerk  for  a  confidant ;  tyrannical 
interference  of  the  church-wardens ;  clandestine  cor- 
respondence concealed  under  the  hassock  ;  appeal 
to  the  parishioners,"  etc.  He  was  overflowing  with 
humor  to  the  very  close  of  life.  He  wrote  to  Lady 
Carlisle  during  his  last  illness,  saying, "  If  you  hear  of 
sixteen  or  eighteen  pounds  of  human  flesh,  they  be- 
long to  me.  I  look  as  if  a  curate  had  been  taken  out 
of  me." 

Buffon  caused  his  "  Epoques  de  la  Nature  "  to  be 
copied  eighteen  times,  so  many  corrections  and  changes 
were  made.  As  he  was  then  (1778)  over  seventy 
years  of  age,  one  would  think  this  an  evidence  that  his 
mind  was  failing  him.  Pope  covered  with  memoranda 
every  scrap  of  clear  paper  which  came  in  his  way. 


90  GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

Some  of  his  most  elaborate  literary  work  was  begun 
and  finished  on  the  backs  of  old  letters  and  bits  of 
yellow  wrappers.  We  do  not  wonder  that  such  frag- 
mentary manuscript  always  suggested  the  idea  of 
revision  and  correction.  It  is  difficult  to  understand 
why  Pope  should  have  assumed  this  small  virtue  of 
economy  and  yet  often  have  been  lavish  in  other 
directions ;  indeed,  it  may  be  questioned  whether  it 
was  intended  to  be  an  act  of  economy.  Such  petty 
parsimony  is  inexplicable,  but  certainly  it  grew  into 
a  fixed  habit  with  him.  We  believe  it  was  Swift  who 
first  called  him  "  paper-saving  Pope  ; "  but  Swift  was 
nearly  as  eccentric  a  paper-saver  as  Pope.  He  wrote 
to  Dr.  Sheridan :  "  Keep  very  regular  accounts,  in 
large  books  and  a  fair  hand  ;  not  like  me,  who,  to 
save  paper,  confuse  everything ! "  Miss  Mitford  had 
the  same  habit  of  writing  upon  waste  scraps  of  paper, 
fly-leaves  of  books,  envelopes,  and  odd  rejected  bits, 
all  in  so  small  a  hand  as  to  be  nearly  illegible. 
William  Hazlitt  was  also  remarkable  for  the  same 
practice,  and  we  are  told  that  he  even  made  the  first 
outline  of  some  of  his  essays  on  the  walls  of  his  cham- 
ber, much  to  the  annoyance  of  his  landlady. 

Some  idea  of  the  rapidity  with  which  Byron  wrote 
may  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  the  "  Prisoner  of 
Chillon "  was  written  in  two  days  and  sent  away 
complete  to  the  printer.  The  traveller  in  Switzer- 
land does  not  fail  to  visit  the  house  —  once  a  way- 
side inn,  at  Merges,  on  the  Lake  of  Geneva  —  where 
Byron  wrote  this   poem  while   detained   by  a   rain- 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOWY.  91 

storm,  in  1816.  On  the  heights  close  at  hand  is 
the  Castle  of  Wuffens,  dating  back  to  the  tenth  cen- 
tury. Morges  is  a  couple  of  leagues  from  Lausanne, 
and  the  spot  where  Gibbon  finished  his  "  Rise  and 
Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,"  in  1787.  Colton,  the 
philosophical  but  erratic  author  of  "  Lacon,"  wrote 
that  entire  volume  upon  covers  of  letters  and  such 
small  scraps  of  paper  as  happened  to  be  at  hand 
when  a  happy  thought  inspired  him.  Having  com- 
pleted a  sentence,  and  rounded  it  to  suit  his  fancy, 
he  threw  it  into  a  pile  with  hundreds  of  others, 
which  were  finally  turned  over  to  the  printer  in  a 
cloth  bag.  No  classification  or  system  of  arrange- 
ment was  observed.  Colton  exhibited  all  the  sin- 
gularities that  only  too  often  characterize  genius, 
especially  as  regards  improvidence  and  recklessness 
of  habit.  He  lived  unattended,  in  a  single  room  in 
Princes  Street,  Soho,  London,  in  a  neglected  apart- 
ment containing  scarcely  any  furniture.  He  wrote 
very  illegibly  upon  a  rough  deal  table  with  a  stumpy 
pen.  He  was  finally  so  pressed  with  debts  that  he  ab- 
sconded to  avoid  his  London  creditors,  though  he  held 
the  very  comfortable  vicarage  of  Kew,  in  Surrey. 

Montaigne,  the  French  philosopher  and  essayist, 
whose  writings  have  been  translated  into  every  mod- 
ern tongue,  like  the  musician  Sacchini  was  marvel- 
lously fond  of  cats,  and  would  not  sit  down  to  write 
without  his  favorite  by  his  side.  Thomas  Moore  re- 
quired complete  isolation  when  he  did  literary  work, 
and  shut  himself  up,  as  did  Charles  Dickens.     He 


92  GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

was  a  very  slow  and  painstaking  producer.  Some 
friend  having  congratulated  him  upon  the  seeming 
facility  and  appropriateness  with  which  a  certain  line 
was  introduced  into  a  poem  he  had  just  published, 
Moore  replied,  "  Facility  !  that  line  cost  me  hours 
of  patient  labor  to  achieve."  His  verses,  which  read 
so  smoothly,  and  which  appear  to  have  glided  so 
easily  from  his  pen,  were  the  result  of  infinite  labor 
and  patience.  His  manuscript,  like  Tennyson's,  was 
written,  amended,  rewritten,  and  written  again,  until 
it  was  finally  satisfactory  to  his  critical  ear  and  fancy. 
"  Easy  writing,"  said  Sheridan,  "  is  commonly  damned 
hard  reading." 

Bishop  Warburton  tells  us  that  he  could  "  only 
write  in  a  hand-to-mouth  style  "  unless  he  had  all 
his  books  about  him  ;  and  that  the  blowing  of  an  east 
wind,  or  a  fit  of  the  spleen,  incapacitated  him  for 
literary  work  ;  and  still  another  English  bishop  could 
write  only  when  in  full  canonicals,  a  fact  which  he 
frankly  admitted.  Milton  would  not  attempt  to  com- 
pose except  between  the  vernal  and  autumnal  equi- 
noxes, at  which  season  his  poetry  came  as  if  by  inspi- 
ration, and  with  scarcely  a  mental  effort.^  Thomson, 
Collins,  and  Gray  entertained  very  similar  ideas,  which 
when  expressed  so  incensed  Dr.  Johnson  that  he 
publicly  ridiculed  them.     Crabbe  fancied  that  there 

^  Dr.  Johnson  was  not  particularly  inclined  to  "smash  images ; " 
but  when  he  looked  for  the  first  time  upon  Callcott's  picture  of 
"  Milton  and  his  Daughters,"  one  of  whom  holds  a  pen  as  if  about 
to  write  from  his  dictation,  the  doctor  coolly  remarked,  "  The 
daughters  were  never  taught  to  write  ! " 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.  93 

was  something  in  the  effect  of  a  sudden  fall  of  snow 
that  in  an  extraordinary  manner  stimulated  him  to 
poetic  composition  ;  while  Lord  Orrery  found  no 
stimulant  equal  to  a  fit  of  the  gout !  —  all  of  which 
fancies  are  but  mild  forms  of  monomania.  James 
Hogg  (the  Ettrick  Shepherd)  was  only  too  glad  to 
write  without  any  of  these  accessories,  when  he  could 
get  any  material  to  write  upon.  He  used  to  employ 
a  bit  of  slate,  for  want  of  the  necessary  paper  and 
ink.  The  son  of  an  humble  Scottish  farmer,  he  ex- 
perienced all  sorts  of  misfortunes  in  his  endeavors 
to  pursue  literature  as  a  calling.  He  was  both  a 
prose  and  poetic  writer  of  considerable  native  genius, 
and  formed  one  of  the  well-drawn  characters  of 
Christopher  North's  "  Noctes  Ambrosianee."  N.  P. 
Willis  in  the  latter  years  of  his  life  was  accustomed 
to  ride  on  horseback  before  he  sat  down  to  write.  He 
believed  there  was  a  certain  nervo-vital  influence  im- 
parted from  the  robust  health  and  strength  of  the  ani- 
mal to  the  rider,  as  he  once  told  the  writer  of  these 
pages ;  and,  so  far  as  one  could  judge,  the  influence 
upon  himself  certainly  favored  such  a  conclusion. 

Some  authors  frankly  acknowledge  that  they  have 
not  the  necessary  degree  of  patience  to  apply  them- 
selves to  the  correction  of  their  manuscripts.  Ovid, 
the  popular  Roman  poet,  admitted  this.  Such  peo- 
ple may  compose  with  pleasure,  but  there  is  the  end  ; 
neither  a  sense  of  responsibility  nor  a  desire  for  cor- 
rectness can  overcome  their  constitutional  laziness. 
Pope,  Dryden,  Moore,  Coleridge,  Swift, — in  short,  nine 


94  GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

tenths  of  the  popular  authors  of  the  past  and  the 
present,  all  change,  correct,  amplify,  or  contract, 
and  interline  more  or  less  every  page  of  manuscript 
■which  they  produce,  and  often  to  such  a  degree  as 
greatly  to  confuse  the  compositors.  Richard  Savage, 
the  unfortunate  English  poet,  could  not,  or  would 
not,  bring  himself  to  correct  his  faulty  sentences, 
being  greatly  indebted  to  the  intelligence  of  the 
proof-reader  for  the  presentable  form  in  which  his 
writings  finally  appeared.  Julius  Scaliger,  a  cele- 
brated scholar  and  critic,  was,  on  the  other  hand,  an 
example  of  remarkable  correctness,  so  that  his  manu- 
script and  the  printer's  pages  corresponded  exactly, 
page  for  page  and  line  for  line.  Hume,^  the  histo- 
rian, was  never  done  with  his  manifold  corrections  ; 
his  sense  of  responsibility  was  unlimited,  and  his 
appreciation  of  his  calling  was  grand,  F^nelon  and 
Gibbon  were  absolutely  correct  in  their  first  efforts  ; 
and  so  was  Adam  Smith,  though  he  dictated  to  an 
amanuensis. 

We  are  by  no  means  without  sympathy  for  those 
writers  who  dread  and  avoid  the  reperusal  and  cor- 
rection of  their  manuscripts.  Only  those  who  are  fa- 
miliar with  the  detail  of  book-making  can  possibly 
realize  its  trying  minutiae.  When  one  has  finished 
the  composition  and  writing  of  a  chapter,  his  work 

1  Such  a  superiority  do  the  pursuits  of  literature  possess  over 
other  occupation,  that  even  he  who  attains  but  a  mediocrity 
merits  pre-eminence  above  those  that  excel  the  most  in  the  com- 
mon and  vulgar  professions,  —  Hume. 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.  95 

is  only  begun  ;  it  must  be  read  and  re-read  with 
care,  to  be  sure  of  absolute  correctness.  When  once 
in  type,  it  must  be  again  carefully  read  for  the  cor- 
rection of  printer's  errors,  and  again  revised  by  sec- 
ond proof ;  and  finally  a  third  proof  is  necessary,  to 
make  sure  that  all  errors  previously  marked  have 
been  corrected.  By  this  time,  however  satisfactory 
in  composition,  the  text  becomes  "  more  tedious  than 
a  twice-told  tale."  Any  author  must  be  singularly 
conceited  who  can,  after  such  experience,  take  up  a 
chapter  or  book  of  his  own  production  and  read  it 
with  any  great  degree  of  satisfaction.  Godeau,  Bishop 
of  Venice,  used  to  say  that  "  to  compose  is  an  author's 
heaven ;  to  correct,  an  author's  purgatory ;  but  to 
revise  the  press,  an  author's  hell!" 

Guido  Reni,  whose  superb  paintings  are  among 
the  gems  of  the  Vatican,  in  the  height  of  his  fame 
would  not  touch  pencil  or  brush  except  in  full 
dress.  He  ruined  himself  by  gambling  and  disso- 
lute habits,  and  became  lost  as  to  all  ambition  for 
that  art  which  had  been  so  grand  a  mistress  to  him  in 
the  beginning.  He  finally  arrived  at  that  stage  where 
he  lost  at  the  gaming-table  and  in  riotous  living  what 
he  earned  by  contract  under  one  who  managed  his 
affairs,  giving  him  a  stipulated  sum  for  just  so  much 
daily  work  in  his  studio.  Such  was  the  famous 
author  of  that  splendid  example  of  art,  the  "  Martyr- 
dom of  Saint  Peter,"  in  the  Vatican.  Parmigiano, 
the  eminent  painter,  was  full  of  the  wildness  of  genius. 
He  became  mad  after  the  philosopher's  stone,  jilting 


96  GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

art  as  a  mistress,  thougli  his  eager  creditors  forced 
him  to  set  once  more  to  work,  though  to  little  effect. 

Great  painters,  like  great  writers,  have  had  their 
peculiar  modes  of  producing  their  effects.  Thus  Do- 
menichino  was  accustomed  to  assume  and  enact  before 
the  canvas  the  passion  and  character  he  intended  to 
depict  with  the  brush.  While  engaged  upon  the  "  Mar- 
tyrdom of  Saint  Andrew,"  Caracci,  a  brother  painter, 
came  into  his  studio  and  found  him  in  a  violent 
passion.  When  this  fit  of  abstraction  had  passed, 
Caracci  embraced  him,  admitting  that  Domenichino 
had  proved  himself  his  master,  and  that  he  had 
learned  from  him  the  true  manner  of  expressing  sen- 
timent or  passion  upon  the  canvas. 

Richard  Wilson,  the  eminent  English  landscape- 
painter,  strove  in  vain,  he  said,  to  paint  the  motes 
dancing  in  the  sunshine.  A  friend  coming  into  his 
studio  found  the  artist  sitting  dejected  on  the  floor, 
looking  at  his  last  work.  The  new-comer  examined 
the  canvas  and  remarked  critically  that  it  looked  like 
a  broad  landscape  just  after  a  shower.  Wilson  started 
to  his  feet  in  delight,  saying,  "  That  is  the  effect  I 
intended  to  represent,  but  thought  I  had  failed." 
Poor  Wilson  possessed  undoubted  genius,  but  ne- 
glected his  art  for  brandy,  and  was  himself  neglected 
in  turn.  He  was  one  of  the  original  members  of  the 
Royal  Academy. 

Undoubtedly,  genius  is  at  times  nonplussed  and  at 
fault,  like  plain  humanity,  and  is  helped  out  of  a 
temporary  dilemma  by  accident,  —  as  when  Poussin 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.  97 

the  painter,  having  lost  all  patience  in  his  fruitless 
attempts  to  produce  a  certain  result  with  the  brush, 
impatiently  dashed  his  sponge  against  the  canvas  and 
brought  out  thereby  the  precise  effect  desired ;  namely, 
the  foam  on  a  horse's  mouth. 

Washington  Allston  ^  is  recalled  to  us  in  this  con- 
nection, one  of  the  most  eminent  of  our  American 
painters,  and  a  poet  of  no  ordinary  pretensions. 
"  The  Sylphs  of  the  Seasons  and  other  Poems  "  was 
published  in  1813.  He  was  remarkable  for  his 
graphic  and  animated  conversational  powers,  and  was 
the  warm  personal  friend  of  Coleridge  and  Washing- 
ton Irving.  Irving  says,  "  His  memory  I  hold  in  rev- 
erence and  affection  as  one  of  the  purest,  noblest,  and 
most  intellectual  beings  that  ever  honored  me  with 
his  friendship."  While  living  in  London  he  was 
elected  associate  of  the  Royal  Academy.  Bostonians 
arc  familiar  with  Allston's  half-finished  picture  of 
"  Belshazzar's  Feast,"  upon  which  he  was  engaged 
when  death  snatched  him  from  his  work. 

^  Allston's  death  was  peculiar.  It  occurred  in  1843,  after  a 
cheerful  evening  passed  in  the  midst  of  his  friends.  He  had  just 
laid  his  hand  on  the  head  of  a  favorite  young  friend,  and  after 
begging  her  to  live  as  near  perfection  as  she  could,  he  blessed 
her  with  fervent  solemnity,  and  with  that  blessing  on  his  lips, 
died. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  first  three  men  in  the 
world  were  a  gardener,  a  ploughman,  and  a  grazier ; 
while  all  political  economists  admit  that  the  real 
wealth  and  stamina  of  a  nation  must  be  looked  for 
among  the  cultivators  of  the  soil.  Was  it  not  Swift 
who  declared  that  the  man  who  could  make  two  ears 
of  corn  or  two  blades  of  grass  grow  upon  a  spot  of 
ground  where  only  one  grew  before,  deserved  better  of 
mankind  than  the  whole  race  of  politicians  ?  Bacon, 
Cowley,  Sir  William  Temple,  Buffon,  and  Addison 
were  all  attached  to  horticulture,  and  more  or  less 
time  was  devoted  by  them  to  the  cultivation  of  trees 
and  plants  of  various  sorts  ;  nor  did  they  fail  to  re- 
cord the  refined  delight  and  the  profit  they  derived 
therefrom.  Daniel  Webster  was  an  enthusiastic  ag- 
riculturist; so  were  Washington,  Adams,  Jefferson, 
Walter  Scott,  Horace  Greeley,  Gladstone,  Evarts,^ 
Wilder,  Loring,  Poore,  and  a  host  of  other  con- 
temporaneous and  noted  men.     "  They  who  labor  in 

1  The  farm  of  William  M.  Evarts  is  situated  in  Vermont.  He 
once,  in  eulogizing  that  State,  declared  that  no  criminal  was  allowed 
to  enter  its  prisons  unless  he  furnished  evidence  of  good  moral 
character  before  he  committed  his  crime  ! 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.  99 

the  earth,"  said  Jefferson,  "  are  the  chosen  people 
of  God." 

But  the  habits  and  mode  of  composition  adopted  by 
literary  men  still  crowd  upon  the  memory.  Hobbes, 
the  famous  English  philosopher,  author  of  a  "  Trea- 
tise on  Human  Nature,"  a  political  work  entitled  the 
"  Leviathan,"  etc.,  was  accustomed  to  compose  in  the 
open  air.  The  top  of  his  walking-stick  was  supplied 
with  pen  and  inkhorn,  and  he  would  pause  anywhere 
to  record  his  thoughts  in  the  note-book  always  carried 
in  his  pocket,  Virgil  rose  early  in  the  morning  and 
wrote  at  a  furious  rate  innumerable  verses,  which  he 
afterwards  pruned  and  altered  and  polished,  as  he  said, 
after  the  manner  of  a  bear  licking  her  cubs  into  shape. 
The  Earl  of  Roscommon,  in  his  "  Essay  on  Translated 
Verse,"  declared  this  to  be  the  duty  of  the  poet,  — 

"  To  write  with  fury  and  correct  with  phlegm." 

Dr.  Darwin,  the  ingenious  English  poet,  wrote  his 
works,  like  some  others  of  whom  we  have  spoken,  on 
scraps  of  paper  with  a  pencil  while  travelling.  His 
old-fashioned  sulky  was  so  full  of  books  as  to  give 
barely  room  for  him  to  sit  and  to  carry  a  well-stored 
hamper  of  fruits  and  sweetmeats,  of  which  he  was 
immoderately  fond. 

Rousseau  tells  us  that  he  composed  in  bed  at  night, 
or  else  out  of  doors  while  walking,  carefully  recording 
his  ideas  in  his  brain,  arranging  and  turning  them 
many  times  until  they  satisfied  him,  and  then  he 
committed  them  to  paper  perfected.     He  said  it  was 


100        GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

in  vain  for  him  to  attempt  to  compose  at  a  table  sur- 
rounded by  books  and  all  the  usual  accessories  of  an 
author.  Irving  wrote  most  of  the  "  Stout  Gentleman  " 
mounted  on  a  stile  at  Stratford-on-Avon,  while  his 
friend  Leslie,  the  painter,  was  engaged  in  taking 
sketches  of  the  interesting  locality.  Jane  Taylor,  the 
English  poetess  and  prose  writer,  began  to  produce 
creditable  work  at  a  very  early  age,  and  used  at  first 
to  compose  tales  and  dramas  while  whipping  a  top, 
committing  them  to  paper  at  the  close  of  that  some- 
what trivial  exercise.  As  she  grew  older  she  said 
that  she  could  find  mental  inspiration  only  from  out- 
door exercise. 

Petavius,  the  learned  Jesuit,  when  composing  his 
"  Theologica  Dogmata  "  and  other  works,  would  leave 
his  table  and  pen  at  the  end  of  every  other  hour  to 
twirl  his  chair,  first  with  one  hand,  then  with  the  other, 
for  ten  minutes,  by  way  of  exercise.  Cardinal  Riche- 
lieu resorted  to  jumping  in  his  garden,  and  in  bad 
weather  leaped  over  the  chairs  and  tables  indoors,  — 
an  exercise  which  seemed  to  have  a  special  charm 
for  him.  Samuel  Clark,  the  English  philosopher  and 
mathematician,  adopted  Richelieu's  plan  of  exercise 
when  tired  of  continuous  writing.  Pope  says,  with 
regard  to  exercise,  "  I,  like  a  poor  squirrel,  am  con- 
tinually in  motion,  indeed,  but  it  is  only  a  cage  of 
three  feet :  my  little  excursions  are  like  those  of  a 
shopkeeper,  who  walks  every  day  a  mile  or  two 
before  his  own  door,  but  minds  his  business  all  the 
while." 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        101 

Wc  arc  told  that  Douglas  Jerrold,  when  engaged  in 
preparing  literary  matter,  used  to  walk  back  and  forth 
before  his  desk,  talking  wildly  to  himself,  occasionally 
stopping  to  note  down  his  thoughts.  Sometimes  he 
would  burst  forth  in  boisterous  laughter  when  he 
hit  upon  a  droll  idea.  He  was  always  extremely 
restless,  would  pass  out  of  the  house  into  the  garden 
and  stroll  about,  carelessly  picking  leaves  from  the 
trees  and  chewing  them ;  then  suddenly  hastening 
back  to  his  desk,  he  recorded  any  thoughts  or  sen- 
tences which  had  formed  themselves  in  his  mind. 
Jerrold  wrote  so  fine  a  hand,  forming  his  letters  so 
minutely,  that  his  manuscript  was  hardly  legible  to 
those  not  accustomed  to  it.  He  was  very  fastidious 
about  his  writing-desk,  permitting  nothing  upon  it 
except  pen,  ink,  and  paper.  Like  most  persons  who 
habitually  resort  to  stimulants,  he  could  not  be  con- 
tent with  a  single  glass  of  spirits  or  wine,  but  con- 
sumed many,  until  he  was  only  too  often  unfitted  for 
mental  labor.  Jerrold's  wit  was  of  a  coarser  texture 
than  that  of  Sheridan,  but,  unlike  his,  it  came  with 
spontaneous  force  ;  it  was  always  ready,  though  it 
had  not  the  polish  which  premeditation  is  able  to  im- 
part. Oftentimes  his  wit  was  severely  sarcastic,  but 
as  a  rule  it  was  only  genial  and  mirth-provoking. 

It  was  asked  in  Jcrrold's  club,  on  a  certain  occa- 
sion, what  was  the  best  definition  of  dogmatism. 
"  There  is  but  one,"  he  instantly  replied,  —  "  the  ma- 
turity of  puppyism."  A  member  remarked  one  day 
that  the  business  of  a  mutual  acquaintance  was  going 


102         GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

to  the  devil.  "  All  right,"  said  Jerrold ;  "  then  he 's 
sure  to  get  it  back  again."  Another  member  who 
■was  not  very  popular  with  the  club,  hearing  a  certain 
melody  spoken  of,  said,  "  That  always  carries  me 
away  when  I  hear  it."  "  Cannot  some  one  whistle  it  ?" 
asked  Jerrold.  Another  member,  who  was  rather 
given  to  boasting,  said  :  "  Very  singular  !  I  dined  at 
the  Marchioness  of  So-and-so's  last  week,  and  we 
actually  had  no  fish."  "  Easily  explained,"  said 
Jerrold ;  "  no  doubt  they  had  eaten  it  all  upstairs." 
"When  Heraud,  a  somewhat  bombastic  versifier,  asked 
him  if  he  had  read  his  "  Descent  into  Hell,"  Jerrold 
instantly  replied,  "  No  ;  I  had  rather  see  it."  Being 
asked  what  was  the  idea  of  Harriet  Martineau's 
rather  atheistical  book,  he  answered  that  it  was  plain 
enough,  — "  There  is  no  God,  and  Harriet  is  his 
Prophet."  This  is  even  better  than  the  remark  of 
another  wit  who,  when  asked  what  was  the  outcome 
of  a  meeting  before  which  three  of  the  ablest  and 
most  dogmatic  Positivists  in  England  made  speeches, 
replied  that  the  result  arrived  at  was  this  :  that  there 
were  three  persons  and  no  God.  Jerrold  could  not 
confine  himself  to  any  regular  system  of  work,  but 
drove  the  quill  at  such  times  and  only  to  such  pur- 
pose as  his  erratic  mood  indicated,  jumping  from  one 
subject  to  another  like  one  crossing  a  brook  upon 
stepping-stones.  This,  however,  was  a  habit  by  no 
means  peculiar  to  Douglas  Jerrold.  There  are  some 
ludicrous  stories  told  of  him ;  like  that  of  his  being 
pursued  by  a  printer's  boy  about  the  town,  from  house 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND   SHADOW.       103 

to  club,  from  club  to  the  theatre,  and  so  on,  and 
finally  of  his  being  overtaken,  getting  into  a  corner 
and  writing  an  admirable  article  with  pencil  and 
paper  on  the  top  of  his  hat. 

Agassiz,^  the  great  Swiss  naturalist,  who  became 
an  adopted  and  honored  son  of  this  country,  was  sin- 
gularly unmethodical  in  his  habits  of  professional 
labor.  If  he  was  suddenly  seized  with  an  interest  in 
some  scientific  inquiry,  he  would  pursue  it  at  once, 
putting  by  all  present  work,  though  it  might  be  that 
he  had  just  got  fairly  started  in  another  direction. 
"  I  always  like  to  take  advantage,"  he  would  say, 
"  of  my  productive  moods."  The  rule  that  we  must 
finish  one  thing  before  we  begin  another,  had  no 
force  with  him.  An  individual  connected  with  the 
lyccum  of  a  neighboring  city  called  upon  Agassiz 
to  induce  him  to  lecture  on  a  certain  occasion,  but 
was  courteously  informed  by  the  scientist  that  he 
could  not  comply  with  the  request.  "  It  will  be  a 
great  disappointment  to  our  citizens,"  suggested  the 
caller.  "  I  am  sorry  for  that,"  replied  Agassiz.  "We 
will  cheerfully  give  you  double  the  usual  price,"  added 
the  agent,  "  if  you  will  accommodate  us."  "  Ah, 
my  dear  sir,"  replied  the  scientist,  with  that  earnest 
but  genial  expression  so  natural  to  his    manly  fea- 

^  E.  P.  Whipple  said  of  Agassiz  in  1866  :  "  He  is  not  merely 
a  scientific  tliinker,  he  is  a  scientific  force  ;  and  no  small  portion 
of  the  immense  influence  he  exerts  is  due  to  the  energy,  intensity, 
and  geniality  which  distinguish  the  nature  of  the  man.  In  per- 
sonal intercourse  he  inspires  as  well  as  informs  ;  communicates 
not  only  knowledge,  but  the  love  of  knowledge." 


104         GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

tures,    "I    cannot   afford   to  waste  time   in  making 
money." 

A  very  similar  habit  of  composition  or  study  pos- 
sessed Goldsmith,  Coleridge,  Wordsworth,  Pope,  and 
some  others  of  the  poets,  who  not  infrequently  laid 
by  a  half-constructed  composition  for  two  or  three 
years,  then  finally  took  up  the  neglected  theme,  fin- 
ished and  published  it.  This  unmethodical  style  of 
doing  things  is  but  one  of  the  many  eccentricities  of 
genius.  Scott  said  he  never  knew  a  man  of  much 
ability  who  could  be  perfectly  regular  in  his  habits, 
while  he  had  known  many  a  blockhead  who  could. 
Soutliey  and  Coleridge  were  at  complete  antipodes 
in  regard  to  regularity  of  habits  and  punctuality  : 
the  former  did  everything  by  rule,  the  latter  nothing. 
Charles  Lamb  said  of  Coleridge,  "  He  left  forty  thou- 
sand treatises  on  metaphysics  and  divinity,  not  one 
of  them  complete."  Neither  Agassiz,  Coleridge,  nor 
any  of  similar  irregularity  in  work,  is  to  be  imitated 
in  those  respects.  Had  it  not  been  for  Agassiz's 
far-seeing  and  vigorous  powers,  —  in  short,  for  his 
great  genius,  he  could  never  have  accomplished  his 
remarkable  mission.  The  deduction  which  we  natu- 
rally draw  is,  that  method  is  a  good  servant  but 
a  bad  master.  If  genius  were  to  be  trammelled  by 
system  and  order,  it  would  suffocate.  Perhaps  Mon- 
taigne was  nearly  right  when  he  thought  that  indivi- 
duals ought  sometimes  to  cross  the  line  of  fixed  rules, 
in  order  to  awaken  their  vigor  and  keep  them  from 
growing  musty. 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.         105 

Coleridge  was  much  addicted  to  the  habit  of  mar- 
ginal writing ;  which,  though  sadly  wasteful  on  his 
own  part,  was  very  enriching  to  those  friends  who 
loaned  him  from  their  libraries.^  Charles  Lamb, 
who  was  not  inclined  to  spare  book-borrowers  as  a 
tribe,  had  no  reflections  to  cast  upon  Coleridge  for 
this  habit.  The  depth,  weight,  and  originality  of 
his  comments  as  hastily  and  carelessly  penned  on  the 
margins  of  books  were  wonderful,  and  if  collected 
and  classified  would  form  several  volumes,  not  only 
of  captivating  interest,  but  of  rare  critical  value,  as 
the  few  which  have  been  brought  together  abundantly 
prove.  In  one  volume  which  he  returned  to  Lamb  is 
this  memorandum :  "  I  shall  die  soon,  my  dear  Charles 
Lamb,  and  then  you  will  not  be  vexed  that  I  have  be- 
scribbled  your  book.  S.  T.  C,  May  2d,  1811."  "Elia" 
valued  these  marginal  notes  beyond  price,  and  said 
that  to  lose  a  volume  to  Coleridge  carried  some  sense 
and  meaning  with  it.  These  critical  notes  often  nearly 
equalled  in  quantity  of  matter  the  original  text.  In 
his  article  upon  the  subject.  Lamb  says,  "  I  counsel 
thee,  shut  not  thy  heart  nor  thy  library  against  S.  T. 
C."  As  we  have  already  said,  while  this  erratic  ex- 
penditure of  Coleridge's  rare  literary  taste  and  judg- 
ment  enriched    others,  it  in  a  degree  impoverished 

^  On  the  fly-leaf  of  a  volume  of  Anderson's  "  British  Poets " 
he  wrote  the  following  lines  :  — 

"Ye  autograph-secreting  thieves, 
Keep  scissors  from  these  precious  leaves, 
And  likewise  thumbs,  profane  and  greasy, 
From  pages  hallowed  by  S.  T.  C." 


106        GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

himself ;  for  had  the  same  time  and  thought  been 
expended  upon  consecutive  literary  work,  it  would 
have  produced  volumes  of  inestimable  value  to  the 
world  at  large,  and  have  proved  monumental  to  their 
author. 

Byron  was  addicted  to  marginalizing  ;  and  though 
he  could  not  equal  Coleridge  in  the  profundity  of  his 
criticisms,  or  impart  such  charming  interest  to  them, 
still  he  was  quite  original  and  often  piquant.  Burns 
contented  himself  with  trifling  criticisms  of  approval 
or  disapproval  pencilled  in  the  margin  of  books, 
especially  poetical  ones,  which  were  nearly  all  he  was 
in  the  habit  of  reading. 

Many  famous  authors  and  public  men  have  been 
extravagantly  fond  of  the  rod  and  line,  disciples  of 
that  patient  and  poetical  angler,  Izaak  Walton. 
George  Herbert,  the  English  poet ;  Henry  Wotton, 
diplomatist  and  author ;  Dr.  Paley,  Archdeacon  of 
Carlisle ;  John  Dryden,  poet  and  dramatist ;  Sydney 
Smith,  the  witty  divine;  Sir  Humphry  Davy,  the 
eminent  chemist,  —  all  were  devoted  anglers. ^  This 
brief  list  might  be  largely  increased.  Bulwer-Lytton 
says  :  "  Though  no  participator  in  the  joys  of  more 
vehement  sport,  I  have  a  pleasure  that  I  cannot  recon- 
cile to  my  abstract  notions  of  the  tenderness  due  to 
dumb  creatures,  in  the  tranquil  cruelty  of  angling.  I 
can  only  palliate  the  wanton  destructiveness  of  my 

1  The  pleasant'st  angling  is  to  see  the  fish 
Cut  with  her  golden  oars  the  silver  stream, 
And  greedily  devour  the  treacherous  bait.  —  Shah^peare. 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.       107 

amusement  by  trying  to  assure  myself  that  my  pleas- 
ure does  not  spring  from  the  success  of  the  treachery 
I  practise  towards  a  poor  little  fish,  but  rather  from 
that  innocent  revelry  in  the  luxuriance  of  summer 
life  which  only  anglers  enjoy  to  the  utmost."  Walton 
puts  himself  on  record  in  these  words  :  "  We  may  say 
of  angling,  as  Dr.  Boteler  said  of  strawberries : 
'  Doubtless  God  could  have  made  a  better  berry,  but 
doubtless  God  never  did ; '  and  so,  if  I  might  be  judge, 
God  never  did  make  a  more  calm,  quiet,  innocent 
recreation  than  angling."  Sydney  Smith  declared  it 
to  be  an  occupation  fit  for  a  bishop,  and  that  it  need 
in  no  way  interfere  with  sermon-making. 

Perhaps  the  best  thing  said  or  done  in  angling  is 
an  unpublished  anecdote  of  the  great  preacher  to  the 
seamen,  —  the  late  Father  Taylor,  of  Boston.  He  was 
once  lured  to  try  his  hand  at  the  rod,  and  soon 
brought  up  a  very  little  fish  that  had  been  tempted 
by  his  bait.  He  took  the  small  creature  carefully 
from  the  hook,  gazed  at  it  a  moment,  and  then  cast  it 
back  into  the  water,  with  this  advice  :  "  My  little 
friend,  go  and  tell  your  mother  that  you  have  seen  a 
ghost !  " 

Dr.  Parr,  the  profound  English  scholar,  was  a  most 
inveterate  smoker ;  so  was  Charles  Lamb,^  who  one 
day  said  to  his  doctor,  "  I  have  acquired  this  habit 
by  toiling  over  it,  as  some  men  toil  after  virtue." 

^  When  Lamb  was  once  asked  by  a  friend  why  he  did  not  leave 
oflF  smoking,  he  humorously  replied  that  he  could  find  no  equiva- 
lent vice. 


108        GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

Kobert  Hall,  the  popular  English  divine,  was  very 
much  addicted  to  tobacco  and  other  stimulants.  A 
friend  who  found  him  in  his  study  blowing  forth 
clouds  of  smoke  from  his  lips,  said,  "  There  you 
are,  at  your  old  idol !  "  "  Yes,"  replied  the  divine, 
"burning  it."  Napoleon  could  never  abide  smoking 
tobacco ;  yet  observing  how  much  other  men  seemed 
to  enjoy  it,  he  tried  to  acquire  the  habit,  but  finally 
gave  it  up  in  disgust.  He,  however,  took  snuff  to 
excess.  Sir  Walter  Scott  was  very  fond  of  smoking. 
Thackeray,  like  Burns,  loved  to  get  away  by  himself 
and  enjoy  the  flavor  of  a  rank  tobacco-pipe.  Carlyle, 
like  Tennyson,  did  not  care  for  a  cigar,  but  kept  a  pipe 
in  his  mouth  most  of  his  waking  hours.  Bulwer- 
Lytton  was  a  ceaseless  smoker ;  and  there  are  few  if 
any  notable  Germans  who  have  not  been  addicted  to 
the  same  indulgence.  The  nicotine  produced  from 
tobacco  is  one  of  the  most  deadly  of  all  poisons,  as 
has  been  proven  by  some  startling  experiments  in  the 
Paris  hospitals.^  Thackeray  said  there  was  good 
eating  in  Scott's  novels.  Extending  the  remark,  it 
might  be  added  that  there  was  good  drinking  in  those 
of  Dickens,  and  good  smoking  in  those  of  Thackeray. 
Dean  Swift  relieved  his  sombre  moods  by  harness- 
ing his  servants  with  cords  and  driving  them,  school- 

^  A  patient  who  had  been  an  inveterate  smoker  of  tobacco  for 
years,  on  entering  the  hospital  was  placed  in  a  hot  water  bath,  and 
here  he  remained  for  half  an  hour.  A  frog  and  other  aqueous 
animals  placed  in  the  same  water  after  it  had  become  cool,  died 
instantly  ;  showing  that  the  patient  had  exuded  by  the  pores  of 
the  skin  suflScient  nicotine  to  impregnate  the  water. 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND   SHADOW.        109 

boy  fashion,  up  and  down  the  stairs  and  through  the 
garden  of  the  deanery  of  St.  Patrick's  Cathedral, 
Dublin.  Dickens  was  controlled  by  a  nervous  activ- 
ity which  made  him  crave  physical  exercise  of  some 
sort,  and  he  daily  found  relief  in  an  eight  or  ten  mile 
walk.  Thackeray  once  told  the  author  of  these  pages 
that  he  preferred  to  take  his  exercise  driving  upon  very 
easy  roads.  When  Dickens  was  in  this  country  he 
was  frequently  accompanied  in  his  long  walks  by  the 
late  James  T.  Fields,  who  was  ever  ready  to  sacrifice 
himself  to  the  pleasure  of  others.  Mr.  Fields  was 
not  partial  to  extreme  pedestrian  exercise,  and  the  au- 
thor of  the  "  Pickwick  Papers  "  tested  his  good-nature 
to  the  verge  of  exhaustion  in  this  respect.  Dumas, 
when  not  otherwise  engaged,  was  accustomed  to  go 
down  into  his  kitchen,  and,  deposing  the  servants, 
cook  his  own  dinner ;  and  an  excellent  cook  he  must 
have  been,  if  one  half  the  stories  rife  about  him  be 
true.  Besides,  did  he  not  write  an  original  cook-book, 
which  still  stands  for  good  authority  in  the  cafes  of 
the  boulevards  ? 

Dr.  Warton,  the  English  critic  and  author,  as  rep- 
resented by  contemporary  authority,  was  noted  for  a 
love  of  vulgar  society,  which  he  daily  sought  in  low 
tap-rooms  and  gin-shops,  where  he  joked  away  the 
evening  hours.  Turner  the  painter  had  similar 
tastes  and  habits,  though  he  was  of  a  reserved  and 
unsociable  character,  and  noted  for  his  parsimony. 
Shelley,  Goldsmith,  and  Macaulay  delighted  in  the 
company  of  young  children.     "  They  are  so  near  to 


110        GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

God,"  said  Shelley.  "  Intercourse  with  them  freshens 
and  rejuvenates  one's  soul,"  wrote  Macaulay.  "  Hove 
these  little  people ;  and  it  is  not  a  small  thing  when 
they,  who  are  so  fresh  from  God,  love  us,"  said 
Dickens.  Children  always  had  a  most  tender  and  hu- 
manizing effect  upon  Douglas  Jerrold,  no  matter  what 
was  his  mood.  He  writes  :  "  A  creature  undefiled  by 
the  taint  of  the  world,  unvexed  by  its  injustice,  un- 
wearied by  its  hollow  pleasures ;  a  being  fresh  from 
the  source  of  light,  with  something  of  its  universal 
lustre  in  it.  If  childhood  be  this,  how  holy  the  duty 
to  see  that  in  its  onward  growth  it  shall  be  no  other ! " 
History  tells  us  that  Henry  of  Navarre,  who  was 
every  inch  a  king,  was  often  seen  upon  his  palace 
floor  with  two  of  his  children  upon  his  back,  playing 
elephant  and  rider.  What  a  peep  into  the  king's  heart 
we  get  by  this  little  picture  of  his  domestic  life  ! 
"Where  was  all  the  monarch's  pride  of  State,  his 
kingly  dignity  ?  "  How  hard  it  is  to  hide  the  sparks 
of  nature  !  "  It  is  related  of  Epictetus  that  he  would 
steal  away  from  his  philosophical  associates  to  pass 
an  hour  romping  with  a  group  of  children,  —  "to 
prattle,  to  creep,  and  to  play  with  them."  Charles 
Eobert  Maturin,  the  poet,  author  of  the  tragedy  of 
"  Bertram,"  and  other  successful  dramas,  could  not 
endure  to  have  children  near  him  during  his  hours  of 
literary  composition.  At  such  times  he  was  particu- 
larly sensitive,  and  pasted  a  wafer  on  his  forehead  as 
a  token  to  the  members  of  his  family  that  he  was 
not  to  be  interrupted.     He  said  if  he  lost  the  thread 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.       Ill 

of  his  ideas  even  for  a  moment,  they  were  gone  from 
him  altogether.     Sir  Walter  Scott,  on  the  contrary, 
"was  ever  ready  to  lay  down  his  pen  at  any  moment, 
to  exchange  pleasant  words  with  child  or  adult,  friend 
or  stranger ;  and  it  was  notorious  that  children  could 
always   interrupt  him  with  impunity.     He  declared 
that  their  childish  accents  made  his  heart  dance  with 
glee.     He  could  not  check  their  confidence  and  sim- 
plicity, though  pressed  upon  him  when  his  thoughts 
were    soaring  in   poetic   flights   or  describing  vivid 
scenes  of  warfare  and  carnage.     Scott  preserved  con- 
siderable system,  nevertheless,  in  his  composition  and 
labor.     He  lay  awake,  he  tells  us,  for  a  brief  period 
in  the   quiet   of    the   early   morning,  and   arranged 
carefully  in  his  mind  the  work  of  the  coming  day. 
He  laid  out  systematically  the  subject  upon  which 
he  was  writing,  and   resolved   in  what   manner  he 
would  treat  it.     Thus  it  was  that  he  could  lay  down 
his  pen  at  any  moment  without  deranging  the  pur- 
pose of  the  work.     He  had  one  axiom  to  which  he 
tenaciously  adhered,  and  was  often  heard  to  repeat 
it  to  his  dependants  and  friends  :  "  Do  whatever  is 
to  be  done,  at  once  ;  take  the  hours  of  reflection  or 
recreation  after  business,  and  never  before  it." 

Schiller  said  that  children  made  him  half  glad  and 
half  sorry,  —  always  inclined  to  moralize.  "  Happy 
child,"  he  exclaims,  "  the  cradle  is  still  to  thee  a 
vast  space  :  become  a  man,  and  the  boundless  world 
will  be  too  small  for  thee."  Goethe  was  ever  watch- 
ful, loving,  and  tender  with  the  young.     "  Children," 


112         GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

he  says,  "  like  dogs,  have  so  sharp  and  fine  a  scent, 
that  they  detect  and  hunt  out  everything."  He 
thought  their  innocent  delusions  should  be  held 
sacred.  Elihu  Burritt,  the  "  Learned  Blacksmith," 
says  that  he  once  congratulated  an  humble  farmer 
upon  having  a  fine  group  of  sons.  "  Yes,  they  are 
good  boys,"  vras  the  father's  answer.  "  I  talk  to 
them  often,  but  I  do  not  beat  my  children,  —  the 
Avorld  will  beat  them  by  and  by,  if  they  live."  A  fine 
thought,  rudely  expressed. 

Shelley's  interest  in  children  was  connected  with 
his  half  belief  in  the  Platonic  doctrine  of  pre-exist- 
ence.  As  he  was  passing  over  one  of  the  great  Lon- 
don bridges,  meditating  on  the  mystery,  he  saw  a 
poor  working-woman  with  a  child  a  few  months  old 
in  her  arms.  Here  was  an  opportunity  to  bring  the 
theory  to  a  decisive  test :  and  in  his  impulsive  way 
he  took  the  infant  from  its  astonished  mother,  and 
in  his  shrill  voice  began  to  ask  it  questions  as  to  the 
world  from  which  it  had  so  recently  come.  The 
child  screamed,  the  indignant  parent  called  for  the 
police  to  rescue  her  baby  from  the  pliilosophical  kid- 
napper ;  and  as  Shelley  reluctantly  delivered  the  in- 
fant to  its  mother's  arms,  he  muttered,  as  he  passed 
on,  "  How  strange  it  is  that  these  little  creatures 
should  be  so  provokingly  reticent ! "  Shelley  was  a 
child  himself  in  many  respects ;  in  illustration  of 
which  the  reader  has  only  to  recall  the  poet's  sin- 
gular amusement  of  sailing  paper  boats  whenever 
he  found  himself  conveniently  near  a  pond.     So  long 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        110 

as  the  paper  which  he  chanced  to  have  about  him 
lasted,  he  remained  riveted  to  the  spot.  First  he 
would  use  the  cover  of  letters,  next  letters  of  little 
value  ;  but  he  could  not  resist  the  temptation,  finally, 
of  employing  for  the  purpose  the  letters  of  his  most 
valued  correspondents.  He  always  carried  a  book  in 
his  pocket,  but  the  fly-leaves  were  all  consumed  in 
forming  these  paper  boats  and  setting  them  adrift 
to  constitute  a  miniature  fleet.  Once  he  found  him- 
self on  the  banks  of  the  Serpentine  River  without 
paper  of  any  sort  except  a  ten-pound  note.  He  re- 
frained for  a  while  ;  but  presently  it  was  rapidly 
twisted  into  a  boat  by  his  skilful  fingers,  and  de- 
voted to  his  boat -sailing  purpose  without  further 
delay.  Its  progress  being  watched,  it  was  finally 
picked  up  on  the  opposite  shore  of  the  river  and  re- 
turned to  the  owner  for  more  legitimate  use. 

Charles  Lamb  in  his  quaint  way  says  :  "  1  know  that 
sweet  children  are  the  sweetest  things  in  nature,  not 
even  excepting  the  delicate  creatures  which  bear  them; 
but  the  prettier  the  kind  of  a  thing  is,  the  more  de- 
sirable it  is  that  it  should  be  pretty  of  its  kind.  One 
daisy  differs  not  much  from  another  in  glory  ;  but  a 
violet  should  look  and  smell  the  daintiest."  ^ 

Good  and  substantial  food  is  quite  as  necessary  to 
authors  and  public  men,  as  to  those  who  gain  their 

^  At  another  time,  having  been  greatly  annoyed  by  the  per- 
sistent crying  and  screaming  of  some  Infant  children,  Lamb  tried 
to  bear  it  patiently ;  but  finally  he  quietly  ejaculated,  "  B-b-blessed 
b-be  the  m-memory  of  g-good  King  Herod !  " 

8 


114        GENIUS  IX  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

livelihood  by  laborious  physical  employment.  Au- 
thors are,  however,  as  a  rule,  rather  inclined  to  free 
indulgence  at  table.  There  is  as  much  intemper- 
ance in  eating  as  in  drinking.  Tom  Moore,  who  was 
the  best  diner-out  of  his  day,  said,  by  way  of  ex- 
cusing this  habit,  "In  grief,  I  have  always  found 
eating  a  wonderful  relief."  N.  P.  Willis  was  quite 
a  gourmand.  "  There  are,"  he  once  wrote,  "  so  few 
invalids  untemptable  by  those  deadly  domestic  ene- 
mies, sweetmeats,  pastry,  and  gravies,  that  the  usual 
civilities  at  a  meal  are  very  like  being  politely  as- 
sisted to  the  grave."  It  is  certainly  better  to  punish 
our  appetites  than  to  be  punished  by  them.  Dickens 
and  Thackeray  were  both  inclined  to  free  indulgence 
at  the  table,  the  former  being  struck  with  death  at  a 
public  banquet.  Dean  Swift  often  gave  better  advice 
than  he  was  himself  inclined  to  follow.  He  says  : 
"  Temperance,"  meaning  both  in  eating  and  drinking, 
"  is  a  necessary  virtue  to  great  men,  since  it  is  the 
parent  of  the  mind,  which  philosophy  allows  to  be 
one  of  the  greatest  felicities  in  life."  Macready,  the 
famous  English  tragedian,  would  not  touch  food  of 
any  kind  for  some  hours  before  making  one  of  liis 
grand  dramatic  efforts,  but  drank  freely  of  strong 
tea  before  appearing  in  public,  —  a  subtle  stimulant 
in  which  the  late  Rufus  Choate  freely  indulged,  parti- 
cularly before  addressing  a  jury. 

Abstinence  in  diet  was  a  special  virtue  with  Milton. 
Shelley  utterly  despised  the  pleasures  of  the  table. 
"Walter  Scott  was  an  abstemious  eater.     Pope  was  a 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.       115 

great  epicure,  and  so  was  the  poet  Gay.  Speaking  of 
appetite,  Coleridge  tells  us  of  a  man  he  once  saw  at 
a  dinner-table,  who  struck  him  as  remarkable  for  his 
dignity  and  wise  face.  The  awful  charm  of  his  man- 
ner was  not  broken  until  the  muffins  appeared,  and 
then  the  wise  one  exclaimed,  "  Them 's  the  jockeys 
for  me !  "  Dignity  is  sometimes  very  rudely  un- 
masked, and  an  imposing  air  is  nearly  always  the 
cloak  of  a  fool.  Newton  lived  on  the  simplest  food. 
"  If  Aristotle  could  diet  on  acorns,"  he  said,  "  so  can 
I ; "  and  before  sitting  down  to  study  he  exercised 
freely  and  abstained  from  food.  Dr.  George  Fordyce, 
the  eminent  Scotch  physician,  ate  but  one  meal  a 
day,  saying  that  if  one  meal  in  twenty-four  hours  was 
enough  for  a  lion,  it  was  sufficient  for  a  man  ;  but  in 
order  not  to  be  like  the  lion,  he  drank  a  bottle  of 
port,  half  a  pint  of  brandy,  and  a  pitcher  of  ale  with 
his  one  meal.  Lamartine  used  to  pass  one  day  in  ten 
fasting,  as  he  said,  to  clear  both  stomach  and  brain. 
Aristo,  the  stoic  philosopher,  used  to  fast  for  days 
on  acorns.  Thomas  Byron,  a  well-known  author, 
never  ate  flesh  of  any  sort.  Dryden's  favorite  dish 
was  a  chine  of  bacon.  Charles  Lamb  was  enamoured 
of  roast  pig.  He  said,  "  You  can  no  more  improve 
sucking  pig  than  you  can  refine  a  violet ! "  Keats 
was  a  very  fastidious  eater,  but  was  fond  of  the  table, 
especially  where  there  was  good  wine,^  and  yet  he  was 

^  Hayden,  the  painter,  says  of  Keats,  that  at  dinner  he  would 
swallow  some  grains  of  red  pepper  in  order  that  he  might  enjoy 
the  more  the  "  delicious  coolness  of  claret." 


116        GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

not  addicted  to  its  intemperate  use.  Dr.  Johnson 
was  greedy  over  boiled  mutton ;  and  Dr.  Rhondelet, 
the  famous  writer  on  fishes,  was  so  fond  of  figs  that 
he  died  from  having  at  one  time  eaten  immoderately 
of  them.  Barrow,  one  of  the  greatest  of  English  theo- 
logians and  mathematicians,  is  said  to  have  died  of 
a  surfeit  of  pears,  —  a  fruit  of  which  he  was  extrava- 
gantly fond. 

Gastronomic  appetite  and  reason  have  been  com- 
pared to  two  buckets  in  a  well ;  when  one  is  at  the  top 
the  other  is  at  the  bottom.  Byron  nearly  starved 
himself  to  prevent  growing  gross  and  uninteresting  in 
physical  aspect.  Addison  was  addicted  to  port  and 
claret,  and  was  accustomed,  as  already  spoken  of, 
while  meditating  a  moral  or  political  essay,  to  pace 
up  and  down  the  long  gallery  of  Holland  House.^ 
"When  a  humorous  suggestion  occurred  to  his  fertile 
fancy,  he  solaced  himself  with  claret ;  or  fortified  him- 
self with  a  glass  of  port  when  a  moral  sentiment 
required  to  be  enforced  by  an  impressive  close  to  a 
beautifully  constructed  sentence.^  This  was  after 
his  frigid  marriage  to  the  Dowager  Countess  of  War- 
wick.    On  his  death-bed  he  is  reported  to  have  said 

1  It  was  at  Holland  House,  of  which,  he  became  possessed  by 
marriage,  that  Addison 

"Taught  us  how  to  live;  and  (oh  !  too  high 
A  price  for  knowledge)  taught  us  how  to  die.  " 

2  Those  were  days  when  people  drank  freely.  "  How  I  should 
like,"  said  Grattau  one  day  to  Rogers,  "  to  spend  my  whole  life  in  a 
small  neat  cottage  !  I  could  be  content  with  very  little  ;  I  should 
need  only  cold  meat,  and  bread,  and  beer,  and  'plenty  of  claret.'" 


I 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.       117 

to  her  graceless  son,  "  See  how  a  Christian  can  die  !  " 
Probably  the  profligate  youth,  spying  his  father-in-law 
as  he  walked  in  the  gallery,  might  have  irreverently 
rcmarlvcd  :  "  See  how  a  Christian  can  drink  ! "  But 
the  truth  is  that  Addison,  judged  by  the  habits  of 
his  time,  should  be  considered  a  moderate  drinker. 
Poe's  nerves  were  so  shattered  that  a  slight  amount 
of  wine  would  intoxicate  him  into  a  frenzy  of  dissipa- 
tion ;  the  same  amount  swallowed  by  a  regular  toper 
would  hardly  disturb  his  brain  at  all.  While  Pitt 
was  quite  a  young  man,  he  was  so  weakly  that  his 
physician  ordered  him  to  drink  freely  of  port  wine, 
and  he  thus  contracted  the  habit  of  depending  upon 
stimulants,  and  could  not  do  without  them.  Lord 
Greville  tells  us  he  has  seen  him  swallow  a  bottle  of 
port  wine  by  tumblerfuls  before  going  to  the  House. 
This,  together  with  the  habit  of  late  suppers,  helped 
materially  to  shorten  his  life.^ 

Goldsmith  had  a  queer  fancy  for  sassafras  tea,  from 
which  he  imagined  he  derived  an  excellent  tonic  effect. 
Such  a  relish  had  certainly  one  element  to  recommend 
it,  —  and  that  was  its  harmlessness.  Dr.  Shaw,  the 
English  naturalist,  nearly  killed  himself  by  drinking 
green  tea  to  excess.  Haydn  partook  immoderately  of 
strong  coffee,  and  kept  it  brewing  by  his  side  while  he 
composed.  Burns  lived  on  whiskey  for  weeks  together,, 
supplemented  by  tobacco,  which  caused  Byron  to  say 
that  he  was  "  a  strange  compound  of  dirt  and  deity." 

^  The  blemishes  of  great  men  are  not  the  less  blemishes  ;  but 
they  are,  unfortunately,  the  easiest  part  for  imitation.  —  Disraeli. 


118         GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

Aristippus  of  old  lived  up  to  his  own  motto ;  namely, 
"  Good  cheer  is  no  hindrance  to  a  good  life."  Few 
men  reason  about  their  appetites,  but  they  give  way  to 
them  until  disease  reminds  them  they  are  made  of 
mortal  stuff.  Even  Plutarch  used  to  indulge  at  times 
in  riotous  living,  saying,  "  You  cannot  reason  with 
the  belly ;  it  has  no  ears."  Addison  has  pithily  re- 
corded his  own  ideas  of  this  matter.  "  When  I  behold 
a  fashionable  table  set  out  in  all  its  magnificence,"  he 
says, "  I  fancy  that  I  see  gouts  and  dropsies,  fevers  and 
lethargies,  with  other  innumerable  distempers,  lying 
in  ambuscade  among  the  dishes.  Nature  delights  in 
the  most  plain  and  simple  diet.  Every  animal  but 
man  keeps  to  one  dish.  Herbs  are  the  food  of  this 
species,  fish  of  that,  and  flesh  of  a  third.  Man  falls 
upon  everything  that  comes  in  his  way;  not  the  small- 
est fruit  or  excrescence  of  the  earth,  scarce  a  berry 
or  a  mushroom,  can  escape  him."  It  is  among  the 
easiest  of  all  things  to  outsit  both  our  health  and  our 
pleasure  at  the  table.  "  The  pleasures  of  the  palate," 
said  shrewd  old  Seneca,  "  deal  with  us  like  Egyptian 
thieves,  who  strangle  those  whom  they  embrace." 

Thackeray  said  towards  the  close  of  his  life,  that 
his  physicians  warned  him  habitually  not  to  do  what 
he  habitually  did.  "  They  tell  me  that  I  should  not 
drink  wine,  and  somehow  I  drink  wine ;  that  I  should 
not  eat  this  or  that,  and,  guided  by  my  appetite  for 
this  or  that,  I  disregard  the  warning." 

Eminent  men  are  not  unlike  the  rest  of  humanity 
in  a  desire  for  some  sort  of  recreation,  and  each  one 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.       119 

finds  it  after  his  own  natural  bent  or  fancy.  Litera- 
ture is  capable  of  affording  the  most  rational  and 
lasting  enjoyment  to  cultured  minds,  but  physical 
exercise  has  also  its  reasonable  demands.  The  late 
Victor  Emmanuel  found  recreation  only  in  hunting, 
having  a  number  of  lodges  devoted  to  this  purpose  in 
different  parts  of  Italy.  McMahon,  late  President  of 
France,  was  also  an  ardent  sportsman.  William  the 
Conqueror  passed  all  his  leisure  in  the  hunting-field ; 
and  President  Cleveland  hastens  with  rod  and  gun  to 
pass  his  vacation  in  the  Adirondack  region.  Henry  Y. 
occupied  a  whole  day  at  a  time  upon  his  one  game, 
—  tennis.  Cardinal  Mazarin,  while  virtual  ruler  of 
France,  used  to  shut  himself  up  in  his  library  and  pass 
an  hour  daily  in  jumping  over  the  chairs.  Louis  XVI. 
had  a  passion  for  constructing  intricate  locks  and 
keys,  many  curious  specimens  of  which  are  still  ex- 
tant in  the  Cluny  Museum.  Charles  II.  in  his  leisure 
hours  enjoyed  practical  chemistry.  John  Milton  wiled 
away  the  long  hours  of  his  blindness,  when  not  en- 
gaged in  composing  and  dictating,  by  playing  upon  a 
cabinet  organ;  and  Chief  Justice  Saunders  was  given 
to  the  same  recreation.  The  Duke  of  Burgundy  had  a 
singular  fancy  for  constructing  mechanical  traps  and 
surprises  in  his  house  and  grounds,  so  that  visitors 
were  liable  to  encounter  practical  jokes  at  every  turn. 
"We  might  cover  pages  in  enumerating  the  resorts 
of  notable  people  in  their  instinctive  search  after 
necessary  recreation  from  sterner  duties.  Man  must 
be  doing  something  in  order  to  be  happy  ;  action  being 


120         GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

quite  as  necessary  to  the  health  of  body  and  brain  as 
thought.  Schiller  declared  that  he  found  the  greatest 
happiness  of  life  to  consist  in  the  regular  discharge 
of  some  mechanical  duty.  "  Cheerfulness,"  says  the 
shrewd  and  practical  Dr.  Home,  is  "  the  daughter  of 
employment;  and  I  have  known  a  man  come  home 
from  a  funeral  in  high  spirits,  merely  because  he  had 
the  management  of  it."  It  is  in  our  unoccupied  mo- 
ments that  discontent  creeps  into  the  mind ;  busy 
people  have  no  time  to  be  very  miserable.  Amuse- 
ments are  not  without  a  double  purpose,  and  it  is 
only  a  mistaken  zeal  which  argues  against  those  that 
are  innocent.  "  Let  the  world,"  says  that  wise  old 
philosopher  Robert  Burton,  "have  their  May-games, 
wakes,  whatsunales,  their  dancings  and  concerts  ; 
their  puppet-shows,  hobby  horses,  tabors,  bagpipes, 
balls,  barley-breaks,  and  whatever  sports  and  recrea- 
tions please  them  best,  provided  they  be  followed  with 
discretion." 

Sir  George  Cornewall  Lewis,  a  scholar  as  well  as  a 
statesman,  found  delight  in  a  variety  of  intellectual 
work.  He  shirked  as  well  as  he  could  all  invitations 
to  parties,  balls,  and  dinners,  and  once  despairingly 
exclaimed,  when  he  was  called  from  his  studies  to 
enter  into  some  form  of  amusement,  "  that  life  was 
tolerable  were  it  not  for  its  pleasures." 


CHAPTER    Y. 

Leonaedo  da  Yinci,  the  inspired  painter  of  the 
"  Last  Supper "  upon  the  walls  of  the  time-worn 
Milan  convent,^  is  said  to  have  had  a  strange  incli- 
nation for  dirt.  One  biographer  tells  us  he  grovelled 
in  it.  Da  Yinci  was  a  great  engineer  and  scientist, 
as  well  as  artist.  The  face  of  Judas  in  the  group 
seated  at  the  table  carries  with  it  a  legend.  The 
artist  entertained  a  bitter  enmity  towards  a  priest  of 
the  Cathedral  who  had  worked  him  some  vital  injury, 
cither  real  or  imaginary.  His  revenge  was  clear  to 
him ;  his  enemy's  hated  features  were  impressed 
upon  his  mind,  and  so,  a  little  modified  to  suit  the 
supposed  treacherous  character  of  the  disciple,  were 
made  to  constitute  those  of  Judas  at  the  moment 
when  he  contemplates  the  betrayal  of  his  Master. 
The  likeness  was  too  plain  not  to  be  recognized  by 

^  Occupied,  the  last  time  the  author  visited  Milan,  as  barracks 
for  a  cavalry  regiment.  Time  and  exposure  are  fast  obliterating 
the  original  work  of  Da  Vinci.  In  1520  Leonardo  da  Vinci 
visited  France  at  the  urgent  solicitation  of  Francis  I.  His  health 
was  feeble,  and  the  king  often  came  to  Fontainebleau  to  see  him. 
One  day  when  the  king  entered,  Leonardo  rose  up  in  bed  to  receive 
him,  but  in  the  effort  fainted.  Francis  hastened  to  support  him  ; 
but  the  eyes  of  the  artist  closed  forever,  and  he  lay  encircled  in 
the  arms  of  the  monarch. 


122        GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

those  who  knew  of  the  ill  feeling  existing  between 
the  artist  and  priest.  The  result  was  that  the  latter 
was  virtually  banished  from  the  city,  as  he  asked  to 
be,  and  was  transferred  to  Rome. 

Raphael  thought  he  could  paint  best  under  the  in- 
spiration of  wine,  and  therefore  used  it  freely.  Some 
modern  critics  pretend  to  discover  the  vinous  influence 
in  certain  exaggerations  of  style  peculiar  to  his  best 
pictures.  Notwithstanding  the  number  and  grandeur 
of  the  works  which  he  left  behind  him,  he  died  prema- 
turely at  the  age  of  thirty-seven.  A  book  might  easily 
be  written  upon  the  peculiarities  and  habits  of  artists  ; 
but  we  continue  our  desultory  gossip. 

How  often  we  see  the  lives  and  fortunes  of  indi- 
viduals contingent  upon  seeming  chance  !  Cromwell 
and  Hampden,  who  were  cousins,  both  took  passage 
in  a  vessel  that  lay  in  the  Tliames,  bound  for  this 
country,  in  1637.  They  were  actually  on  board,  when 
an  order  of  council  prohibited  the  vessel  from  sailing. 
We  recall  two  other  instances  of  a  similar  character 
in  the  career  of  Goethe  and  Robert  Burns,  each  of 
•whom  was  once  on  the  eve  of  sailing  for  America 
to  seek  a  foreign  home.  Locke  was  banished  from 
England  by  force  of  public  opinion,  in  company  with 
his  friend  Lord  Ashley,  and  wrote  his  well-known 
"Essay  on  the  Human  Understanding  "  ^  in  a  Dutch 

1  The  original  copy  of  this  work  is  still  preserved,  dated  1671, 
though  it  was  not  published  until  1690,  —  an  evidence  of  the 
author's  great  caution  in  offering  his  views  to  the  public.  Three 
of  his  works  were  not  published  until  after  his  death. 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        123 

garret.  He  finally  lived  down  all  detraction,  and 
was  himself  a  practical  example  of  that  self-teach- 
ing which  lie  so  strongly  advocates  in  his  writings. 
He  possessed  a  wonderful  memory  ;  so  also  did 
Thomas  Fuller,  who  could  repeat  five  hundred  un- 
connected words  after  twice  hearing  them.  Cole- 
ridge esteemed  Fuller,  not  only  for  his  wit,  originality, 
and  liberality,  but  as  being  the  most  sensible  great 
man  of  an  age  that  boasted  a  galaxy  of  great 
men. 

Jeremy  Taylor,  whose  birth  is  shrouded  in  mystery, 
though  he  is  said  to  be  the  son  of  a  barber,  was  a  sin- 
gular compound,  in  character,  of  simplicity  and  erudi- 
tion. He  was  always  a  child  among  children,  and  it  is 
said  that  a  child  could  at  any  time  attract  his  atten- 
tion. He  encountered  many  of  the  sterner  vicissitudes 
of  life,  being  more  than  once  cast  into  prison.  In  the 
civil  war  he  was  a  decided  adherent  of  Charles  I., 
and  some  have  supposed  him  to  have  been  a  natural 
son  of  that  monarch.  Emerson  calls  him  the  Shak- 
speare  of  divines.  Gibbon,  the  distinguished  histo- 
rian, composed  while  walking  back  and  forth  in  his 
room,  completely  arranging  his  ideas  in  his  brain 
before  taking  his  pen  in  hand,  which  in  a  degree 
accounts  for  the  correctness  of  his  manuscript.^   Mon- 

^  Rogers  says  that  Gibbon  took  very  little  exercise.  He  had 
been  staying  some  time  with  Lord  Sheffield  in  the  country  ;  and 
when  he  was  about  to  go  away,  the  servants  could  not  find  his 
hat.  "  Bless  me,"  said  Gibbon,  "  I  certainly  left  it  in  the  hall  on 
my  arrival  here."  He  had  not  stirred  out  of  the  house  during 
the  whole  of  the  visit. 


124        GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

taigne  and  Cbateaubriand,i  when  disposed  to  compo- 
sition, sought  the  open  fields  and  unfrequented  paths, 
where,  somewhat  like  Gibbon,  they  arranged  their 
matter  with  great  precision  before  sitting  down  to 
write.  Bacon  always  wrote  in  a  small  room,  because, 
as  he  believed,  it  enabled  him  to  concentrate  his 
thoughts.  Franklin  wrote  and  studied  with  a  plate  of 
bread  and  cheese  by  his  side  to  repair  mental  waste, 
as  he  said,  and  also  to  economize  time.  Is  there  not 
a  ceaseless  interest  hanging  over  the  domestic  and 
professional  habits  of  these  famous  men  of  the  past  ? 

Congreve,  to  whom  Pope  dedicated  his  Iliad  and 
Dryden  submitted  his  poems  for  criticism  before 
giving  them  to  the  public,  was  extremely  popular, 
witty,  and  original  as  a  dramatist.  Congreve  was  a 
slow  writer,  and  was  the  father,  as  it  were,  of  that 
style  of  writing  which  died  with  Sheridan.  He  wrote 
only  a  few  dramas,  but  those  were  incomparable  for 
the  brilliancy  of  the  dialogue ;  yet  the  brilliancy  was 
obtained  by  the  hardest  intellectual  ivork.  According 
to  Macaulay,  no  English  author  except  Byron  had  at 
so  earl}^  an  age  stood  so  high  in  the  estimation  of  his 
contemporaries.     But  the  licentiousness  and  general 

1  Chateaubriand  was  the  most  famous  French  author  of  the 
First  Empire.  It  will  be  remembered  that  he  visited  this  country 
in  1791.  He  wrote,  relative  to  dining  with  Washington  at  Phil- 
adelphia :  "  There  is  a  virtue  in  the  look  of  a  great  man.  I  felt 
myself  warmed  and  refreshed  by  it  during  the  rest  of  my  life." 
His  career  was  full  of  remarkable  vicissitudes.  He  was  once  left 
for  dead  on  the  battlefield,  suffered  banishment,  and  was  for  a 
time  imprisoned  in  the  Bastile. 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        125 

immorality  of  the  works  of  Congreve  arc  without 
excuse.^  He  had  not  even  the  paltry  plea  of  neces- 
sity, which  might  lead  him  to  pander  to  a  vitiated 
taste  in  seeking  a  market  for  his  wares,  as  was 
evidently  the  case  with  Fielding.  He  was  very  de- 
sirous to  pass  for  a  man  of  fashion,  and  affectedly 
sneered  at  his  own  literary  productions,  declaring 
them  to  be  produced  simply  to  while  away  his  idle 
hours.  Vanity  seems  to  have  completely  overshad- 
owed any  spirit  of  ambition  which  may  have  origi- 
nally inspired  him.  Flattery  and  royal  patronage 
were  the  ruin  of  Congreve  so  far  as  his  after  fame 
is  concerned.  Had  he  known  the  wholesome  spur  of 
necessity,  his  grand  powers  would  have  shone  with 
surpassing  lustre.  He  had  the  genius,  but  not  the 
incentive,  wherewith  to  make  a  great  name.  Pope  is 
said,  on  a  certain  occasion,  to  have  hinted  as  much 
to  Congreve,  whom  he  really  reverenced  for  his  abil- 
ity, and  to  have  incurred  his  partial  enmity  thereby. 
"  Oh  that  men's  ears  should  be  to  counsel  deaf,"  says 
Shakspeare, "  but  not  to  flattery."  The  broad  incon- 
sistency of  Congreve's  dramas  is  the  fact  that  all  his 
characters  are  equally  endowed  with  wit,  culture,  and 
genius.  Collier,  in  his  review  of  the  profaneness  of  the 
English  stage,  administered  to  Congreve  a  merited 
castigation,  to  which  the  dramatist  attempted  to  re- 
ply, but  without  success. 

^  Thackeray  says  of  Congreve  :  "He  loved,  conquered,  and 
jilted  the  beautiful  Bracegirdle,  the  heroine  of  all  his  plays,  the 
favorite  of  all  the  town  of  her  day." 


126         GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

The  remarkable  vicissitudes  whicli  have  waited  upon 
the  career  of  men  of  genius,  and  especially  of  authors, 
are  very  noticeable.  The  earliest  authentic  history- 
shows  us  the  same  fatality  besetting  the  paths  of 
such  characters  as  has  pursued  them  to  the  present 
day.  The  student  of  the  past  will  recall  as  examples 
Seneca  and  his  friend  Lucan,  who  were  honored  and 
famous  in  the  days  of  Nero.  Both  of  these  renowned 
authors,  when  condemned  to  death,  lanced  their  veins 
and  sung  a  dying  requiem  while  the  tide  of  their  lives 
ebbed  slowly  away.  So  Socrates  drank  of  the  fatal 
hemlock,  like  Sappho  and  Lucretius,  voluntarily  seek- 
ing death.  "  That  which  is  a  necessity  to  him  that 
struggles,  is  little  more  than  a  choice  to  him  who  is 
willing,"  says  Seneca.  Sophocles,  the  Greek  tragic  poet 
and  rival  of  JEschylus,  was  brought  to  trial  by  his  own 
children  as  a  lunatic.  He  composed  more  than  a  hun- 
dred tragedies,  of  which  seven  are  still  extant.  He 
also  excelled  as  a  musician.  Plautus,  poet  and  drama- 
tist, was  at  one  time  a  baker's  assistant,  earning  his 
bread  by  grinding  corn  in  a  hand-mill.  Tasso,  Italy's 
favorite  epic  poet,  became  broken-hearted  from  unre- 
quited love,  and  was  confined  in  a  mad-house  for  years, 
and,  illustrative  of  the  mutability  of  fortune,  was  after- 
wards brought  to  Rome  to  be  crowned,  like  Petrarch, 
with  laurels,  but  died  before  the  day  of  coronation. 
Euripides,  one  of  the  three  tragic  poets  of  Greece, 
was  torn  to  pieces  by  dogs  ;  and  Hesiod,  a  still  more 
ancient  poet,  fell  by  the  assassin's  dagger.  In  later 
times  there  looms  up  the  name  of   Galileo,  the  dis- 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        127 

coverer  and  natural  philosopher,  imprisoned  by  the 
Inquisition  for  teaching  men  that  the  world  moved.^ 
"  Poor  Galileo,"  said  a  modern  wit,  "  was  too  honest ; 
he  should  have  treated  these  inquisitors  to  a  cham- 
pagne supper,  and  they  would  have  risen  from  it  with 
the  conviction  that  the  world  surely  did  turn  round." 
Galileo's  greatest  affliction,  however,  was  that  of 
becoming  totally  blind.  Milton,  who  visited  him  in 
prison,  tells  us  he  was  poor  and  old.  In  a  letter 
which  he  dictated  to  a  correspondent,  Galileo  says : 
"  Alas !  your  dear  friend  has  become  irreparably  blind. 
The  heavens,  the  earth,  this  universe,  which  by  won- 
derful observation  I  have  enlarged  a  thousand  times 
past  the  belief  of  former  ages,  are  henceforth  shrunk 
into  the  narrow  space  which  I  myself  occupy."  Han- 
del also  passed  the  last  of  his  life  in  the  gloom  of 
blindness ;  and  Beethoven  was  afflicted  with  incurable 
deafness,  which  nearly  drove  him  to  suicide.^  It  was 
perhaps  the  most  trying  misfortune  possible  to  one 
with  his  special  endowments.  Have  not  these  historic 
characters  tested  the  familiar  axiom  that  calamity  is 
man's  true  touchstone  ? 

^  Galileo  was  remo-rkable,  even  in  his  youth,  for  mechanical 
genius,  and  also  for  his  accomplishments  in  painting,  poetry, 
music,  and  song.  In  early  childhood,  it  is  said  of  him,  "  while 
other  boys  were  whipping  their  tops,  he  was  scientifically  con- 
sidering the  cause  of  the  motion." 

2  "  I  was  nigh  taking  my  life  with  my  own  hands,"  he  \^ote, 
"  but  art  held  me  back.  I  could  not  leave  the  world  until  I  had 
revealed  what  was  within  me."  In  view  of  his  great  misfortune, 
his  dying  words  are  very  touching:  "  I  shall  be  able  to  hear  in 
heaven  ! " 


128         GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

Dante,  the  greatest  poet  between  the  Augustan  and 
Elizabethan  ages,  was  expatriated  and  exiled  from 
wife  and  children,  becoming  a  poverty-stricken  wan- 
derer. Thus  broken  in  heart  and  fortune  he  was 
hurried  by  persecution  to  his  grave.  Spenser,  who 
endowed  English  verse  with  the  soul  of  harmony 
while  eking  out  a  life  of  misery,  finally  died  in  abject 
poverty.  Milton  sold  "  Paradise  Lost "  ^  for  ten 
pounds.  "  When  Milton  composed  that  grand  poem," 
says  Carlyle, "  he  was  not  only  poor  but  impoverished  ; 
he  was  in  darkness,  and  with  dangers  compassed 
round,  he  sang  his  immortal  song,  and  found  fit  audi- 
ence, though  few."  At  one  time  Milton  borrowed 
fifty  pounds  of  Jonathan  Hartop,  of  Aldborough,  who 
lived  to  the  remarkable  age  of  one  hundred  and  thirty- 
eight  years,  dying  in  1791.  He  returned  the  loan  at 
the  time  agreed  upon,  but  Mr.  Hartop,  knowing  his 
straitened  circumstances,  refused  to  take  the  money  ; 
the  pride  of  the  poet,  however,  was  equal  to  his  genius, 
and  he  sent  the  money  back  a  second  time  with  an 
angry  letter,  which  was  found  years  afterwards  among 
the   papers   of  the   remarkable  old  man.     Corneille, 

^  When  "Paradise  Lost"  was  first  published,  in  1667,  Edmund 
Waller,  himself  a  poet,  politician,  and  critic,  said  :  "  The  old 
blind  schoolmaster,  John  Milton,  has  published  a  tedious  poem 
on  the  fall  of  man  ;  if  its  length  be  not  considered  a  merit,  it  bas 
no  other."  The  second  edition  was  not  brought  out  until  seven 
years  later,  1674,  the  year  in  which  Milton  died.  This  edition 
was  prefaced  by  two  short  poems,  the  first  by  Andrew  Marvell  in 
English,  and  the  second  by  Samuel  Barrow  in  Latin,  in  which 
Milton's  poem  is  placed  "  above  all  Greek,  above  all  Roman 
fame." 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        129 

the  French  dramatist ;  Vaugelas,  a  noted  author  of 
the  same  nationality;  Crabbe,  the  English  poet ;  Chat- 
terton,  the  precocious  and  versatile  genius  ;  Holz- 
mann,  the  profound  Oriental  scholar ;  Cervantes ; 
Camoens,^  the  pride  of  Portugal ;  and  Erasmus,  the 
Dutch  scholar,  who  rose  to  the  leadership  of  the  liter- 
ature of  his  day,  —  all  lived  more  or  less  continuously 
on  the  verge  of  starvation.  Camoens  had  a  black  ser- 
vant who  had  grown  old  with  him.  This  man,  a  na- 
tive of  Java,  is  said  to  have  saved  his  master's  life  in 
the  shipwreck  whereby  he  lost  all  his  fortune  except 
his  poems.  In  after  years,  when  Camoens  became 
so  much  reduced  as  to  be  able  no  longer  to  support 
his  servant,  the  faithful  retainer  begged  in  the  streets 
of  Lisbon  for  bread  to  sustain  the  one  great  poet  of 
Portugal.  Le  Sage,  author  of  "  Gil  Bias,"  was  en- 
dowed with  exquisite  literary  taste,  but  the  victim  of 
extreme  poverty.  De  Quincey,  the  eminent  English 
author,  tells  us  that  he  passed  much  time  in  London 
in  the  most  abject  want,  living  upon  precarious  charity. 
Nowhere  else  can  so  vivid  a  picture  of  misused  genius 
be  found  as  in  the  "  Confessions  of  an  English  Opium- 
Eater."  De  Quincey  was  noted  for  his  rare  conver- 
sational powers,  supplemented  by  a  vast  and  varied 
stock  of  information.     He  was  finally  successful  in  a 

^  When  a  friend  complained  to  Camoens  that  he  had  not  fur- 
nished some  promised  verses  for  him,  the  disheartened  poet  replied  : 
"  When  I  wrote  verses  I  was  young,  had  sufficient  food,  was  a 
lover,  and  beloved  by  many  friends,  and  by  the  ladies  ;  then  I 
felt  poetical  ardor  ;  now  I  have  no  spirits  to  write,  no  peace  of 
mind  or  of  body." 

9 


130        GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

business  point  of  view,  and  was  possessed  of  a  noble 
generosity,  as  he  relieved  at  a  critical  moment  the 
necessities  of  Coleridge  at  a  cost  of  five  hundred 
pounds.  This  was  at  a  comparatively  early  period  of 
De  Quincey's  life.  Afterwards  he  was  himself  often 
in  want  of  a  tenth  part  of  the  sum.  He  was  a  volumi- 
nous writer,  though  not  always  publishing  under  his 
own  name ;  his  collection  of  works  as  issued  in  this 
country,  edited  by  J.  T.  Fields,  forms  some  twenty  vol- 
umes. Let  us  not  forget  to  mention  Sydenham,  the 
English  scholar  who  gave  us,  among  other  profound 
works,  the  best  version  of  Plato,  and  who  breathed 
his  last  in  a  London  sponging-house.  "  Genius," 
says  Whipple,  "  may  almost  be  defined  as  the  faculty 
of  acquiring  poverty." 

Some  writers  have  contended,  and  not  without 
reason,  that  such  adversity  was  often  providential; 
that  without  the  spur  of  necessity  genius  would  rarely 
accomplish  its  best,  and  that  distress  has  often  elicited 
talents  which  would  otherwise  have  remained  dormant. 
Ill  speaking  of  Burns,  Carlyle  says :  "  We  question 
•whether  for  his  culture  as  a  poet,  poverty  and  much 
suffering  were  not  absolutely  advantageous.  Great 
men  in  looking  back  over  their  lives  have  testified  to 
that  effect.  '  I  would  not  for  much,'  says  Jean  Paul, 
'that  I  had  been  born  rich.'  And  yet  Jean  Paul's 
birth  was  poor  enough,  for  in  another  place  he  adds : 
*  The  prisoner's  allowance  is  bread  and  water,  and  I 
have  often  only  the  latter.'  But  the  gold  that  is  re- 
fined in  the  hottest  furnace  comes  out  the  purest ;  or, 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        131 

as  he  has  himself  expressed  it, '  the  canary-bird  sings 
sweetest  the  longer  it  has  been  trained  in  a  darkened 
cage.' "  Horace  emphatically  declares,  that  adversity 
has  the  effect  of  developing  talents  which  prosperous 
circumstances  would  not  have  elicited.  The  hardships 
endured  by  many  historic  persons  crowd  upon  the 
mind  in  this  connection.  We  remember  John  Bunyan 
in  Bedford  jail,^  writing  that  immortal  work, "  Pilgrim's 
Progress ;  "  Ben  Jonson,^  the  comrade  of  Shakspeare  ; 
John  Seldon,  the  profound  scholar  and  author  ;  and 
Jeremy  Taylor,  whose  "  Holy  Living  and  Dying  "  is 
only  second  to  "  Pilgrim's  Progress,"  —  all  of  whom 
endured  the  suffering  of  imprisonment.^  Nor  must 
we  forget  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  who  during  his  thirteen 
years  of  prison-life  produced  his  incomparable  "  His- 
tory of  the  World."  *     Lydiat,  the  subtle  scholar  to 

1  The  county  jail  in  which  Bunyan  spent  the  twelve  years  of 
his  life  from  1660  to  1672  was  taken  down  in  1801.  It  stood  on 
what  is  now  the  vacant  piece  of  land  at  the  corner  of  the  High 
Street  and  Silver  Street,  used  as  a  market-place,  in  Bedford.  Silver 
Street  was  so  named  because  it  was  the  quarter  where  the  Jews  in 
early  times  trafficked  in  the  precious  metals. 

^  Ben  Jonson  tried  his  fortune  as  an  actor,  but  did  not  succeed. 
A  duel  with  a  brother  actor,  whom  unhappily  he  killed,  caused 
him  to  be  imprisoned  by  the  sentence  of  the  court.  He  was  ten 
years  younger  than  Shakspeare,  and  survived  him  twenty-one 
years,  dying  in  1637. 

*  Imprisonment  could  not  deprive  Boethius  of  the  consolation 
of  philosophy,  nor  Raleigh  of  his  eloquence,  nor  Davenant  of  his 
grace,  nor  Chaucer  of  his  mirth  :  nor  five  years  of  slavery  at 
Algiers  deaden  the  wit  of  Cervantes.  —  Willmott. 

*  Urged  by  the  King  of  Spain  to  punish  Raleigh  for  his  attack 
on  the  town  of  St.  Thomas,  James  I.  basely  resolved  to  carry  into 


132        GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

whom  Dr.  Johnson  refers,  wrote  his  "  Annotations  on 
the  Parian  Chronicles,"  while  confined  for  debt  in  the 
King's  Bench ;  and  Wicqucfort's  curious  work  on  Am- 
bassadors is  dated  from  the  prison  to  which  he  was 
condemned  for  life.  Voltaire  wrote  his  "  Henriad  " 
while  confined  in  the  Bastile ;  De  Foe  produced  his 
best  works  within  the  walls  of  Newgate ;  and  Cervan- 
tes gave  the  world  "  Don  Quixote  "  from  a  prison.^ 

Some  of  the  sweetest  love-lyrics  extant  were  written 
by  Charles,  Duke  of  Orleans,  during  his  captivity  of 
twenty-five  years.  Baron  Trenck  wrote  his  wonderful 
book  of  personal  experience  during  a  ten  years'  caj> 
tivity  in  a  subterranean  dungeon  at  Magdeburg,  —  a 
book  which  has  been  translated  into  every  modern 
language.  He  was  released  from  prison,  but  died  by 
the  guillotine  at  Paris  in  1794.  Silvio  Pellico,  the 
Italian  poet  and  dramatist,  who  wrote  the  well-known 
story  of  his  prison  life,  was  ten  years  confined  in  the 
fortress  of  Spielberg,  in   Moravia.     Ponce  de  Leon, 

execution  a  sentence  sixteen  years  old,  which  had  been  followed 
by  an  imprisonment  of  thirteen  years,  and  then  a  release.  So 
Raleigh  was  brought  up  before  the  Court  of  King's  Bench  to  re- 
ceive sentence,  and  was  beheaded  the  next  morning. 

1  Philip  III.,  King  of  Spain,  saw  a  student  one  day  at  a  dis- 
tance on  the  banks  of  the  river  Manzanares,  reading  a  book,  and 
from  time  to  time  breaking  off  to  roar  with  laughter  and  show 
other  signs  of  delight.  "  That  person  is  either  mad  or  is  reading 
'  Don  Quixote,'  "  said  the  king,  —  a  volume  of  panegyric  in  a  few 
words.  Cervantes  did  not  have  to  wait  the  verdict  of  posterity 
as  to  his  incomparable  history  of  the  famous  Knight  La  Mancha  ; 
it  sprung  at  once  into  unbounded  popularity,  while  "  it  laughed 
Spain's  chivalry  away." 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        133 

among  the  foremost  of  Spanish  poets,  as  well  as  the 
poet  Alonzo  de  Ereilla,  were  victims  of  long  and  se- 
vere incarceration  because  they  dared  to  translate 
the  Biblical  Songs  of  Solomon  into  Spanish.  James 
Howell,  the  English  author,  wrote  his  "  Familiar  Let- 
ters" in  the  Fleet  Prison.  So  popular  were  they,  that 
he  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  ten  editions  of  them 
published  in  rapid  succession ;  this  was  about  the 
year  1646.  William  Penn  and  Roger  Williams,  both 
founders  of  States  in  this  country,  suffered  imprison- 
ment. The  former  wrote  his  well-known  "  No  Cross, 
No  Crown"  in  the  Tower  of  London.  Oakley,  the 
great  Oriental  scholar,  whose  remarkable  Asiatic  re- 
searches have  rendered  his  name  famous,  wrote  his 
work  on  the  Saracens  in  jail.  Cobbett,  the  political 
satirist,  was  no  stranger  to  the  inside  of  a  prison ; 
and  we  all  remember  Cooper,  the  English  chartist, 
who  made  himself  famous  by  his  "  Prison  Rhymes," 
written  behind  the  frowning  bars.  Montgomery  suf- 
fered the  same  chilling  influences  for  daring  to  make 
a  public  plea  for  freedom  of  speech.  Theodore  Ilook, 
the  novelist,  delightful  miscellaneous  writer,  and  un- 
rivalled wit,  was  for  a  long  period  imprisoned.^ 

Richard  Lovelace,  the  English  poet,  was  a  gallant 

*  During  Theodore  Hook's  confinement  in  a  sponging-liouse 
in  London  lie  was  \dsited  by  an  old  friend.  Astonished  at  the 
comparative  spaciousness  of  the  apartment,  the  latter  ohserved  by 
way  of  consolation,  "  Really,  Hook,  you  are  not  so  badly  lodged, 
after  all.  This  is  a  cheerful  room  enough."  "  Oh,  yes,"  replied 
Theodore,  pointing  significantly  to  the  iron  defences  outside ;  "  re- 
markably so  —  barring  the  windows." 


134         GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

soldier  who  spilled  his  blood  for  his  king  in  the 
civil  war  and  impoverished  himself  in  the  same 
cause,  was  imprisoned  for  political  reasons,  and  died 
poor  and  neglected  at  the  age  of  forty.  He  wrote  to 
"  Lucasta,"  '  when  going  to  the  wars,  that  fine  and 
oftefi-quoted  couplet :  — 

"  I  could  not  love  thee,  dear,  so  much, 
Loved  I  not  honor  more." 

Lucasta  (^Lux  casta,  "  pure  light "  ),  to  whom  his  verses 
were  dedicated,  was  Lady  Sacheverell,  whom  he  de- 
votedly loved,  but  who  married  another  after  having 
been  deceived  by  the  false  report  that  Lovelace  had 
been  killed.  He  was  liberated  from  prison  under 
Cromwell,  but  lived  a  wretched  life  thereafter.  Leigh 
Hunt,  the  most  genial  of  essayists,  was  imprisoned 
for  two  years,  when  he  was  visited  by  Lamb,  Byron, 
and  Moore.  His  offence  was  a  libel  on  the  Prince 
Regent,  afterwards  George  the  Fourth.  Madame 
Guyon  wrote  the  most  of  her  beautiful  poems  —  so 
greatly  admired  by  Cowper  —  while  a  captive  for  four 

1  "  Tell  me  not,  sweet,  I  am  unkind, 
That  from  tlie  nunnery 
Of  tliy  chaste  breast  and  quiet  mind 
To  war  and  arms  I  fly. 

"  True,  a  new  mistress  now  I  chase, 
Tlie  first  foe  in  the  field  ; 
And  Avith  a  stronger  faith  embrace 
A  sword,  a  horse,  a  shield. 

"  Yet  this  inconstancy  is  such 
As  you  too  shall  adore; 
I  could  not  love  thee,  dear,  so  much, 
Loved  I  not  honor  more." 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        135 

years  in  the  Bastile.  The  great  public  library  of 
Paris  contains  forty  octavo  volumes  of  her  writings. 
Why  does  not  some  popular  author  give  us  a  book 
upon  this  theme,  and  entitle  it  "  Behind  the  Prison 
Bars  "  ?  The  suggestion  is  freely  offered,  and  is  per- 
haps worth  considering.  Disraeli  tells  us :  "  The 
gate  of  the  prison  has  sometimes  been  the  porch  of 
fame." 

The  reference  to  Lovelace  reminds  us  that  some- 
times the  female  favorites  of  poets  are  selected  from 
rather  questionable  positions,  and  certainly  with  very 
questionable  taste.  Prior  poured  out  his  admiration 
in  verses  addressed  to  Chloe,  a  fat  barmaid;  and 
Bousard  addressed  poems  to  Cassandra,  who  followed 
the  same  refining  occupation.  Colletet,  a  French 
bard,  addressed  his  lines  to  his  servant-girl,  whom 
he  afterwards  married.  No  doubt  that  oftenest  the 
poet's  mistress  has  no  actual  existence,  but,  like  the 
sculptor's  ideal,  is  the  combined  result  drawn  from 
several  choice  models. 

Gilbert  Wakefield,  the  erudite  scholar,  theologian, 
and  author,  suffered  two  years'  imprisonment  for  pub- 
lishing his  "  Enquiry  into  the  Expediency  of  Public 
and  Social  Worship."  "The  sentence  passed  upon 
him  was  most  infamous,"  says  Rogers,  who,  in  com- 
pany with  his  sister,  visited  the  prisoner  in  Dorchester 
jail.  While  incarcerated  here,  Wakefield  wrote  his 
"  Noctes  Carcerariae  "  ("  Prison  Nights  ").  Matthew 
Prior,  the  poet,  diplomatist,  courtier,  and  versatile 
author,  was  the  son  of  a  joiner,  though  it  is  not  known 


136        GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

exactly  where  he  was  born.  Chancing  to  interest 
the  Earl  of  Dorset,  he  was  educated  at  the  cost  of 
that  liberal  nobleman.  He  ^  was  one  of  those,  as 
Dr.  Johnson  said,  "  that  have  burst  out  from  an 
obscure  original  to  great  eminence."  Thackeray  says 
of  him,  "  He  loved,  he  drank,  he  sang ;  and  he  was 
certainly  deemed  one  of  the  brightest  lights  of  Queen 
Anne's  reign."  His  contempt  for  pedigree  was  very 
natural,  and  was  wittily  expressed  in  the  epitaph 
which  he  wrote  for  himself :  — 

"  Nobles  and  heralds,  by  your  leave, 

Here  lies  what  once  was  Matthew  Prior ; 
The  son  of  Adam  and  of  Eve  : 

Can  Bourbon  or  Nassau  claim  higher  ? " 

Schumann,  the  German  musical  composer,  author 
of  "  Paradise  and  the  Peri,"  in  a  fit  of  mental  depres- 
sion threw  himself  into  the  Ehine,  but  was  rescued. 
Goethe,  Alfieri,  Raphael,  and  George  Sand  all  strug- 
gled against  a  nearly  fatal  temptation  to  end  their 
earthly  careers.  The  last  named  declared  that  at 
the  sight  of  a  body  of  water  or  a  precipice  slie  could 
hardly  restrain  herself  from  committing  suicide ! 
"  Genius  bears  within  itself  a  principle  of  destruction, 
of  death,  and  of  madness,"  says  Lamartine.  De 
Quincey,  who  was  never  quite  sane,  was  given  to  queer 
habits  in  connection  with  his  literary  work.     He  was 

'  Swift  and  Prior  were  very  intimate,  and  he  is  frequently 
mentioned  in  the  "  Journal  to  Stella."  "  Mr.  Prior,"  says  Swift, 
"  walks  to  make  himself  fat,  and  I  to  keep  myself  lean.  We 
often  walk  round  the  Park  together." 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.       137 

wont  to  keep  his  manuscripts  stored  in  his  bath-tub, 
and  carried  his  money  in  his  hat.^  Cowper,  after  a 
fruitless  attempt  to  hang  himself,  became  a  religious 
monomaniac,  "  hovering  in  the  twilight  of  reason  and 
the  dawn  of  insanity."  ^  Moore,  the  gay,  vivacious, 
witty,  diner-out,  sank  finally  into  childish  imbecility. 
John  Clare,  the  English  peasant  poet,  was  born  in 
poverty ;  his  early  productions  accidentally  attracted 
attention  and  gained  him  patrons,  but  after  a  brief, 
irregular,  unhappy  career  he  died  in  an  insane  asylum. 
So  also  died  Charles  Fenno  Hoffman,  our  own  popu- 
lar poet,  editor,  and  novelist,  who  wrote  "  Sparkling 
and  Bright."  Cruden,  the  industrious  author  and 
compiler  of  the  Biblical  Concordance,  suffered  from 
long  fits  of  insanity ;  and  so  did  Jeremy  Bentham,^ 
though  he  lived  to  extreme  old  age,  and  died  so  late 

1  De  Qiiincey  was  often  very  happily  delivered  of  witty  ideas. 
He  said  on  one  occasion,  "  If  once  a  man  indulges  himself  in 
murder,  very  soon  he  comes  to  think  little  of  robbing  ;  and  from 
robbing  he  comes  next  to  drinking  and  Sabbath-breaking,  and 
from  that  to  incivility  and  procrastination.  Once  being  upon  this 
downward  path,  you  never  know  where  you  are  to  stop.  Many  a 
man  has  dated  his  ruin  from  some  murder  or  other  that  perhaps 
he  thought  little  of  at  the  time." 

2  "  I  cannot  bear  much  thinking,"  said  Cowper.  "  The  meshes 
of  the  brain  are  composed  of  such  mere  spinner's  threads  in  me, 
that  when  a  long  thought  finds  its  way  into  them,  it  buzzes  and 
twangs  and  bustles  about  at  such  a  rate  as  seems  to  threaten  the 
whole  contexture." 

'  Macaulay  spoke  with  great  admiration  of  Bentham,  and  placed 
him  in  the  same  rank  with  Galileo  and  Locke,  designating  him 
as  "  the  man  who  found  jurisprudence  a  gibberish,  and  left  it  a 
science." 


138         GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

as  1832.  Congreve  said  it  was  the  prerogative  of 
groat  souls  to  be  wretched ;  and  Jean  Paul,  that  great 
souls  attract  sorrows  as  lofty  mountains  do  storms. 
Lcnau,  the  Hungarian  lyric  poet,  died  in  a  mad-house ; 
in  the  height  of  his  fame  he  refused,  when  invited,  to 
visit  an  asylum,  saying,  "  I  shall  be  there  soon  enough 
as  it  is."  It  would  seem  but  charitable  to  attribute 
fits  of  insanity  to  Carlyle,  who  pronounced  most  of 
his  contemporaries  "  fools  and  lunatics."  His  wife 
confessed  that  she  felt  as  if  she  were  keeping  a  mad- 
house. Yaugelas  died  in  such  poverty  that  he  be- 
queathed his  body  to  the  surgeons  at  Paris  for  a  given 
sum  with  which  to  pay  his  last  board-bill.  In  his  will 
he  wrote:  "As  there  may  still  remain  creditors  unpaid 
after  all  that  I  have  shall  be  disposed  of,  it  is  my 
last  wish  that  my  body  should  be  sold  to  the  surgeons 
to  the  best  advantage,  and  that  the  purchase-money 
should  go  to  discharge  those  debts  which  I  owe  to 
society,  so  that  if  I  could  not  while  living,  at  least 
when  dead  I  may  be  useful."  Yauglas  was  called 
the  owl,  because  he  ventured  forth  only  at  night, 
through  fear  of  his  creditors. 

Next  to  the  "  Newgate  Calendar,"  it  has  been  said, 
the  biography  of  authors  is  the  most  sickening  chap- 
ter in  the  history  of  man.  "  Woe  be  to  the  youth- 
ful poet  who  sets  out  upon  his  pilgrimage  to  the 
temple  of  fame  with  nothing  but  hope  for  his  via- 
ticum !  "  wrote  Southey,  in  1813,  to  a  young  man 
who  had  consulted  him.  "  There  is  the  Slough  of 
Despond,  and  the  Hill  of  Difficulty,  and  the  Valley  of 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        139 

the  Shadow  of  Death  upon  the  way."  Coleridge's 
exhortation  to  youthful  literati  may  be  summed  up  in 
one  sentence  :  "  Never  pursue  literature  as  a  trade." 
B^ranger's  advice  was  by  no  means  to  be  despised. 
He  spoke  as  one  having  authority,  and  he  certainly 
had  experience.^  "Write  if  you  will,"  he  says, 
"  versify  if  you  must,  sing  away  if  the  singing  mood 
is  an  imperative  mood,  but  on  no  account  give  up 
your  other  occupation ;  let  your  authorship  be  a  pas- 
time, not  a  trade ;  let  it  be  your  avocation,  not  your 
vocation."  Even  the  successful  Washington  Irving 
speaks  of  "the  seductive  but  treacherous  paths  of 
literature."  He  adds  :  "  There  is  no  life  more  preca- 
rious in  its  profits  and  more  fallacious  in  its  enjoy- 
ments than  that  of  an  author."  But  these  lines  were 
addressed  to  his  nephew,  and  must  be  taken  cum  grano 
sails.  He  had  genius,  his  nephew  had  not ;  he  never 
could  have  acquired  so  much  money  had  he,  like 
Halleck,  become  a  clerk, — even  the  clerk  of  Mr.  Astor. 
The  truth  is,  most  writers  have  failed  in  authorship 
because  they  have  not  had  talent  enough  to  write  books 
that  an  intelligent  public  would  buy  and  read,  and 
because  their  vagabond  habits  deterred  them  from 
being  employed  by  merchants  and  tradesmen  as  sales- 
men and  clerks.     Real  genius  now  obtains  a  rcmuner- 

*  Beranger's  first  collection  of  songs  was  published  in  1815 
and  received  with  great  favor  by  the  people  ;  but  the  bold,  patri- 
otic, and  often  satirical  tone  of  these  songs  gave  offence  to  the 
Government ;  and  as  the  author  did  not  abate  the  freedom  of  his 
criticism  in  future  poems,  he  was  condemned  to  imprisonment 
and  to  p^y  a  heavy  fine. 


140        GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

ation  always  higher  than  that  of  clerks  and  tradesmen. 
It  is  mediocre  writers  who  mourn  in  our  days ;  but 
they  should  never  have  taken  as  a  profession  a  role 
they  were  incompetent  to  fill.  They  are  like  doctors 
who  cannot  obtain  patients,  and  lawyers  who  cannot 
attract  clients. 

But  we  were  considering  the  past,  not  the  present. 
Robert  Heron,  author,  scholar,  teacher,  who  wrote 
much  that  will  live  in  literature,  died  in  hopeless 
poverty.  His  "  History  of  Scotland  "  and  his  "  Uni- 
versal Geography  "  are  still  among  our  best  books  of 
reference.  He  says  of  himself  in  a  paper  written  just 
before  he  died :  "  The  tenor  of  my  life  has  been  temper- 
ate, laborious,  humble,  and  quiet,  and,  to  the  utmost 
of  my  power,  beneficent.  For  these  last  three  months 
I  have  been  brought  to  the  very  extremity  of  bodily 
and  pecuniary  distress,  and  I  shudder  at  the  thought 
of  perishing  in  jail."  Yet  such  was  his  fate  ;  he  died 
in  Newgate.  Thomas  Decker,  the  English  author,  and 
collaborator  with  Ford  and  Rowley  in  the  production 
of  popular  dramas,  died  in  a  debtor's  prison.  Chris- 
topher Smart,  the  personal  friend  of  Dr.  Johnson, 
produced  his  principal  poem  while  confined  in  a  mad- 
house. Richard  Savage,  the  English  poet,  experienced 
a  life  which  reads  like  fiction.^  The  natural  son  of 
an  English  earl  and  countess,  he  was  abandoned  by  his 

1  "  In  a  cellar,  or  the  meanest  haunt  of  the  casual  wanderer, 
was  to  be  found,"  as  Dr.  Johnson  says,  "  the  man  whose  knowl- 
edge of  life  might  have  aided  the  statesman,  whose  eloquence 
might  have  influenced  senates,  and  whose  conversation  might 
have  polished  courts." 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.       141 

mother  to  the  care  of  a  nurse  who  brought  him  up  in 
ignorance  of  his  parentage.  Before  he  was  thirty 
years  of  age  he  was  tried  and  condemned  for  mur- 
der; and,  though  finally  pardoned,  he  died  in  jail. 
During  a  considerable  portion  of  the  time  that  Savage 
was  engaged  upon  his  tragedy  of  "  Sir  Thomas  Over- 
bury,"  he  was  without  lodgings  and  often  without 
meat ;  nor  had  he  any  other  convenience  for  study  and 
composition  than  the  open  fields  or  the  public  streets. 
Having  formed  his  sentences  and  speeches  in  his 
mind,  he  would  step  into  a  shop,  ask  for  pen  and  ink, 
and  write  down  what  he  had  composed  upon  such 
scraps  of  paper  as  he  had  picked  up  by  chance,  often 
from  the  street  gutters. 

Thomas  Hood,  the  famous  English  humorist,  began 
at  first  as  a  clerk  in  a  store,  then  became  apprentice  to 
an  engraver ;  but  his  genius  soon  led  him  to  seek  liter- 
ary occupation  as  a  regular  means  of  support.  He 
was  endowed  with  an  unlimited  fund  of  wit  and  comic 
power.  His  "  Song  of  the  Shirt "  showed  that  he  had 
also  great  tenderness  and  pathos  in  his  nature.  He 
edited  various  magazines  and  weekly  papers,  and  pub- 
lished two  or  three  humorous  books ;  but  his  career 
was  far  from  a  success  in  any  light.  His  life  was 
occupied  in  incessant  brain-work,  aggravated  by  ill- 
health  and  the  many  uncertainties  of  authorship.  He 
finally  died  poor  in  his  forty-seventh  year,  leaving  a 
dependent  family. 

William  Thom  was  an  English  poet  of  genius,  but 
very  humbly  born.     He   was  at  first  a  weaver  and 


142        GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

afterwards  a  strolling  pcdlcr,  often  only  too  glad  to 
obtain  a  lodging  in  a  country  barn.  The  poor  fellow 
said, "  There  's  much  good  sleeping  to  be  had  in  a  hay- 
loft." In  one  of  these  deplorable  shelters  his  only 
child,  who  followed  him,  perished  from  hunger  and 
exposure.  Thorn  published  so  late  as  1844  a  col- 
lection of  his  poems  entitled,  "  Rhymes  and  Recol- 
lections of  a  Hand-Weaver."  The  volume  was  well 
received,  and  the  author  was  given  a  dinner  by  his 
London  admirers.  He  died  at  the  age  of  fifty-nine  in 
extreme  poverty.  We  find  two  admirable  poems  by 
him  in  Sargent's  "  British  and  American  Poets." 

The  reader  who  has  perused  these  pages  thus  far 
will  doubtless  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  even 
talent  is  not  developed  as  a  rule  in  calm  and  sunshine, 
but  that  it  must  encounter  the  tempest  in  some  form 
before  the  fruit  can  ripen.  Byron,  in  the  third  canto 
of  "  Childe  Harold,"  thus  gloomily  declares  the  penal- 
ties of  becoming  famous  :  — 

"  He  who  ascends  to  mountain-tops  sliall  find 
The  loftiest  peaks  most  wrapt  in  clouds  and  snow  ; 
He  who  surpasses  or  subdues  mankind 
Must  look  down  on  the  hate  of  those  below. 
Though  high  above  the  sun  of  glory  glow, 
And  far  beneath  the  earth  and  ocean  spread, 
Round  hira  are  icy  rocks,  and  loudly  blow 
Contending  tempests  on  his  naked  head, 
And  thus  reward  the  toils  which  to  those  summits  led." 

Longfellow's  idea  is  true  and  forcible  :  "  Time  has 
a  doomsday  book,  in  which  he  is  continually  recording 
illustrious   names.     But   as   soon  as  a  new  name  is 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        143 

•written  there,  an   old  one  disappears.     Only  a  few 
stand  in  illumined  characters  never  to  be  effaced." 

Thackeray's  tender  and  beautiful  thoughts  upon 
this  subject  occur  to  us  here :  "  To  be  rich,  to  be 
famous  ?  do  these  profit  a  year  hence,  when  other 
names  sound  louder  than  yours,  when  you  lie  hidden 
away  under  ground,  along  witli  the  idle  titles  engraven 
on  your  coffin  ?  Only  true  love  lives  after  you,  follows 
your  memory  with  secret  blessings,  or  pervades  you 
and  intercedes  for  you.  Non  omnis  moriar,  if,  dying, 
I  yet  live  in  a  tender  heart  or  two  ;  nor  am  lost  and 
hopeless,  living,  if  a  sainted  departed  soul  still  loves 
and  prays  for  me." 


CHAPTER  YL 

Our  familiar  gossip  thus  far  concerning  those  whose 
lives  by  universal  consent,  "  rising  above  the  deluge 
of  years,"  bear  the  impress  of  genius,  has  led  us  to 
speak  of  the  hardships  and  vicissitudes  to  which  they 
have  so  often  been  subjected.  At  this  sad  yet  inter- 
esting aspect  of  genius  we  will  continue  to  glance, 
observing,  as  hitherto,  no  chronological  order,  but 
discussing  the  personalities  of  each  character  as  they 
are  unrolled  before  us  on  the  panorama  of  memory. 

Handel,  most  original  of  composers,  after  losing  his 
entire  fortune  in  a  legitimate  effort  to  further  the 
interests  of  the  art  he  loved  so  well,  passed  the  last 
of  his  life  in  the  gloom  of  blindness.  His  glorious 
oratorios  were  most  of  them  produced  under  the  stress 
of  keen  adversity,  loss  of  fortune,  and  failing  health, 
quite  sufficient  to  have  discouraged  any  one  not  truly 
inspired.^  Mozart  also  labored  under  the  ban  of  pov- 
erty. He  was  glad  to  accept  even  the  position  of 
chapel-master.      It  is   well   known  that  during  the 

1  Mozart  said  of  him  that  he  struck  you,  whenever  he  pleased, 
with  a  thunderbolt.  Leigh  Hunt  also  said  he  was  the  Jupiter  of 
music  ;  nor  is  the  title  the  less  warranted  from  his  including  in  his 
genius  the  most  afifecting  tenderness  as  well  as  the  most  over- 
powering grandeur. 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.       145 

composition  of  some  of  his  masterpieces  he  and  his 
family  suffered  for  bread.  The  great  composer  was 
so  absorbed  in  music  that  he  was  but  a  child  in 
matters  of  business.^  Whatever  may  be  the  true 
definition  of  genius,  perseverance  and  application 
form  no  inconsiderable  part  of  it.  "  It  is  a  very 
great  error,"  said  Mozart,  "  to  suppose  that  my  art 
has  been  easily  acquired.  I  assure  you  that  there 
is  scarcely  any  one  that  has  so  worked  at  the  study 
of  composition  as  I  have.  You  could  hardly  mention 
any  famous  composer  whose  writings  I  have  not  dili- 
gently and  repeatedly  studied  throughout."  A  boy 
came  to  Mozart  wishing  to  compose  something,  and 
inquiring  the  way  to  begin.  Mozart  told  him  to  wait. 
"  You  composed  much  earlier,"  said  the  youth.  "  But 
asked  nothing  about  it,"  replied  the  musician.^  Will- 
mott  says  very  truly  that  genius  finds  its  own  road 
and  carries  its  own  lamp. 

1  His  biographer  tells  us  that  the  King  of  Prussia  offered  him 
three  thousand  crowns  a  year,  to  attract  him  to  Berlin  ;  but  he 
declined  to  quit  the  service  of  the  Emperor  Joseph,  who  paid  him 
only  eight  hundred  florins  ;  and  that  he  was  often  reduced  to 
painful  distress  for  want  of  money  while  he  lived  in  Vienna. 

"^  We  see  that  which  we  bring  eyes  to  see,  and  appreciation 
presupposes  a  degree  of  the  same  genius  in  ourselves.  Mozart's 
wife  said  of  him  that  he  was  a  better  dancer  than  musician. 
Leigh  Hunt  tells  us  that  when  Mozart  became  a  great  musician,  a 
man  in  distress  accosted  him  in  the  street,  and  as  the  composer 
had  no  money  to  give  him,  he  bade  him  wait  a  little,  while  he 
went  into  a  coffee-house,  where  he  wrote  a  beautiful  minuet  extem- 
pore, and,  sending  the  poor  man  to  the  nearest  nuisic-dealer's,  made 
him  a  present  of  the  handsome  sum  gladly  paid  l)y  the  publisher. 

10 


146         GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

We  have  seen  that  Goldsmith  produced  some  of  his 
finest  literary  work  under  stress  of  circumstances. 
"  Oh,  gods !  gods  !  "  he  exclaimed  to  his  friend  Bryan- 
ton,  "  here  in  a  garret,  writing  for  bread  and  expecting 
to  be  dunned  for  a  milk-score  !  "  Like  so  many  other 
children  of  genius,  he  was  careless,  extravagant,  irreg- 
ular, always  in  debt  and  difficulty,  all  which  hurried 
him  to  his  grave.  He  died  at  the  age  of  forty-five. 
When,  on  his  death-bed,  the  physician  asked  him  if 
his  mind  was  at  ease,  he  answered,  "  No,  it  is  not ! " 
and  these  were  his  last  words.  In  that  exquisite  story, 
the  "  Vicar  of  Wakefield,"  ^  we  have  the  explanation 
of  how  he  supported  himself  while  on  his  travels. 
"  I  had  some  knowledge  of  music,"  he  says,  "  and 
now  turned  what  was  once  my  amusement  into  a  pres- 
ent means  of  subsistence.  Whenever  I  approached  a 
peasant's  house  towards  nightfall,  I  played  one  of  my 
most  merry  tunes  ;  and  that  procured  me  not  only 
a  lodging,  but  subsistence  for  the  next  day."  Gold- 
smith's many  faults  were  all  on  the  amiable  side, 
though  he  was  perhaps  a  little  inclined  to  find  fault 
with  his  ill-fortune  in  good  set  phrases.  Sometimes  we 
are  forced  to  remember  that  the  misery  which  can  so 
readily  find  relief  in  words  of  complaint  is  not  dis- 

1  This  book,  which  none  of  us  fail  to  read  and  read  again  with 
delight,  was  at  first  very  coldly  received,  and  severely  attacked  by 
the  reviewers ;  until  Lord  Holland,  being  ill,  sent  to  his  book- 
seller for  some  amusing  book  to  read,  and  received  the  "  Vicar  of 
Wakefield."  He  read  it,  and  was  so  much  pleased  with  it  that  he 
mentioned  it  wherever  he  visited.  The  consequence  was,  the  first 
edition  was  rapidly  exhausted,  and  the  fame  of  the  book  established. 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        147 

similar  to  that  love  which  Thackeray  thought  quite  a 
bearable  malady  when  finding  an  outlet  in  rhyme  and 
prose.  Real  suffering  and  profound  sorrow  are  nearly 
always  silent  in  proportion  to  their  depth.  It  is 
evanescent  afflictions  which  most  readily  find  tongue. 
"  To  write  well,"  says  Madame  de  Stael,  "  we  should 
feel  truly ;  but  not,  as  Corinne  did,  heartbreakingly." 
If  Goldsmith  did  grumble,  he  had  bitter  cause.  At 
one  time  having  pawned  everything  that  would  bring 
money,  he  resorted  to  writing  ballads  at  five  shil- 
lings apiece,  going  out  secretly  in  the  evening  to 
hear  them  sung  in  the  streets.  His  five  shillings  were 
often  shared  with  some  importunate  beggar.  One  day 
he  gave  away  his  bed-clothes  to  a  poor  woman  who 
had  none ;  and  then,  feeling  cold  at  night,  he  ripped 
open  his  bed  and  was  found  lying  up  to  his  chin  in  the 
feathers !  The  very  name  of  Goldsmith  seems  to  us 
to  ring  with  a  generous  tone  of  unselfishness  and 
human  sympathy.  The  story  is  true  of  his  leaving  the 
card-table  to  relieve  a  poor  woman  whose  voice  as 
she  sang  some  ditty  in  passing  on  the  street  came  to 
his  sensitive  ear  indicating  distress.  Not  a  line 
can  be  found  in  all  his  productions  where  he  has 
written  severely  against  any  one,  though  he  was  him- 
self the  subject  of  bitter  criticism  and  literary  abuse. 
He  was  not  a  very  thorough  reader  of  books,  but  owed 
his  ability  as  a  writer  more  to  the  keenness  of  his  ob- 
servation. Nature  and  life  were  the  books  he  studied ; 
which  was  simply  going  to  the  fountain-head  for  his 
information. 


148        GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

Machiavclli,  the  renowned  Italian  statesman,  phi- 
losopher, and  dramatist,  whose  picturesque  history  of 
Florence  alone  would  have  entitled  him  to  fame,  was 
entirely  misconstrued  by  the  times  in  which  he  lived, 
suffering  imprisonment,  torture,  and  banishment  in 
the  cause  of  public  liberty.  Macaulay  says  of  him  : 
"  The  name  of  a  man  whose  genius  has  illumined  all 
the  dark  places  of  policy,  and  to  whose  patriotic  wis- 
dom an  oppressed  people  owed  their  last  chance  of 
emancipation,  passed  into  a  proverb  of  infamy." 
The  victim  of  one  age  often  becomes  the  idol  of  the 
next.  Dante,^  expatriated,  and  exiled  from  wife  and 
children,  is  not  forgotten.  The  greatest  genius  be- 
tween the  Augustan  and  Elizabethan  ages,  an  accom- 
plished musician,  a  painter  of  no  mean  repute,  and  a 
brilliant  scholar,  he  yet  enjoyed  no  contemporary 
fame.  "  The  inventor  of  the  spinning-jenny  is  pretty 
sure  of  his  reward  in  his  own  day,"  says  Carlyle ; 
"  but  the  writer  of  a  true  poem,  like  the  apostle  of 
a  true  religion,  is  nearly  as  sure  of  the  contrary." 
Dante  poured  out  the  deep  devotion  of  his  youthful 
heart  at  the  feet  of  that  Beatrice  whose  name  he  has 
rendered  classic  by  the  genius  of  his  pen,  though  she 
did  not  live  to  bless  him.  His  later  marriage  was 
ill-assorted  and  unhappy.     The   sublime  and  unique 

1  Perhaps  the  cause  of  Dante's  struggle  through  life  lay  in  that 
reckless  sarcasm  which  prompted  his  answer  to  the  Prince  of  Ve- 
rona, who  asked  him  how  he  could  account  for  the  fact,  that  in  the 
household  of  princes  the  court  fool  was  in  greater  favor  than  the 
philosopher.  "  Similarity  of  mind,"  said  the  fierce  genius,  "  is  all 
over  the  world  the  source  of  friendship." 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.       149 

"  Divine  Comedy  "  was  not  even  published  until  after 
its  author's  death.  Now  the  pilgrim  bends  with  rever- 
ence over  the  grave  whither  he  was  hurried  by  perse- 
cution. How  absurd  are  the  transitions  of  which  human 
appreciation  is  capable !  Even  the  cool,  philosophical 
Carlyle  was  struck  with  admiration  of  the  poet's  devo- 
tion. He  says :  "  I  know  not  in  the  world  an  affection 
equal  to  that  of  Dante.  Tt  is  a  tenderness,  a  trembling, 
longing,  pitying  love,  like  the  wail  of  ^olian  harps,  — 
soft,  soft,  like  a  child's  young  heart ;  one  likens  it  to 
the  song  of  angels  ;  it  is  among  the  purest  utterances 
of  affection,  perhaps  the  very  purest  that  ever  came 
out  of  a  human  soul." 

Hard  indeed  seems  to  have  been  the  fate  of  the 
Italian  dramatist  and  poet,  Bentivoglio,  who,  after 
impoverishing  himself  in  acts  of  charity,  literally  sell- 
ing all  and  giving  the  proceeds  to  the  poor,  when  old 
and  miserable  was  refused  admission  into  a  hospital 
which  he  had  himself  founded  in  his  days  of  prosperity. 
Kotzebue,  the  German  author  and  dramatist,  who 
wrote  that  remarkable  play  "  The  Stranger,"  was  a 
man  beset  with  morbid  melancholy,  causing  him  to 
pray  for  death,  which  came  at  last  by  a  murderous 
hand.i  Philip  Massinger,  the  creator  of  "  Sir  Giles 
Overreach,"  a  dramatic  conception  almost  worthy  of 
Shakspeare,  despite  his  rare  and    wondrous   powers, 

1  Kotzebue  was  fifty-eight  years  of  age  when  he  was  assassi- 
nated at  Mannheim,  in  1819,  by  Karl  Lndwig  Sand,  who  was 
actuated  by  a  fanatical  zeal  against  one  whom  he  considered  a 
traitor  to  liberty.  Kotzebue  was  a  prolific  writer,  and  has  left 
several  dramas. 


150        GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

was  the  child  of  adversity.  Massinger  -wrote  in  con- 
junction with  Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  they  getting 
whatever  of  credit  was  earned  by  the  three.  In  those 
days,  an  established  writer  for  the  stage  would  fre- 
quently utilize  the  brains  of  others  of  less  note,  calling 
them  to  aid  in  productions  which  bore  only  the  em- 
ployer's name.  There  seemed  to  be  no  sunshine  in 
Massinger's  life ;  it  was  all  in  shadow.^  Could  anything 
be  more  pathetic  than  this  brief  entry  in  the  death 
chronicle  of  a  London  parish,  under  date  of  March  20, 
1639  :  "  Buried  —  Philip  Massinger  —  a  stranger." 

Erasmus,  the  Dutch  scholar  and  philosopher,  de- 
frauded of  his  patrimony  while  an  orphan  of  tender 
years,  devoted  himself  to  learning,  and  cheerfully 
submitted  to  every  deprivation  to  secure  it.  While 
pursuing  his  studies  in  Paris  he  was  clothed  in  rags, 
and  his  form  was  cadaverous  from  want  of  food.  It 
was  at  this  time  that  he  wrote  to  a  friend,  "As  soon 
as  I  get  any  money,  I  will  buy  first  Greek  books  and 
then  clothes."  Thus  nurtured  in  the  school  of  adver- 
sity, he  rose  to  a  proud  distinction ;  and  to  him,  more 
than  to  any  other  writer,  was  attributed  the  success  of 

1  The  sad  lines  in  his  last  poem,  entitled  "  Waiting  for  Death," 
will  long  be  remembered  :  — 

"  Deformed  and  wrinkled ;  all  that  I  can  crave 

Is  quiet  in  my  grave. 
Sucli  as  live  happy  hold  long  life  a  jewel ; 

But  to  me  thou  art  cruel 
If  thou  end  not  my  tedious  misery. 

And  I  soon  cease  to  be. 
Strike,  and  strike  home  then ;  pity  unto  me, 

In  one  short  hour's  delay,  is  tjTanny !  " 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.       151 

the  Reformation,  —  it  being  expressively  remarked  that 
he  laid  the  egg  which  Luther  hatched.  If  it  be  true 
that  an  atmosphere  of  hardship  is  necessary  to  the 
nurture  of  genius,  then  certainly  Erasmus  encoun- 
tered the  requisite  discipline ;  but  as  Dr.  Johnson 
says  in  his  epigrammatic  way,  "  there  is  a  frightful 
interval  between  the  seed  and  the  timber."  Death 
is  the  dropping  of  the  flower  that  the  fruit  may  ripen. 
Thus  fame  may  follow,  but  seldom  is  contemporary ; 
nor  does  true  genius  fail  to  recognize  this.  Milton's 
ambition,  to  use  his  own  words,  was,  "  to  leave  some- 
thing, so  written,  to  after  ages  that  they  should  not 
willingly  let  it  die ; "  and  Cato  said  he  had  rather 
posterity  should  inquire  why  no  statues  were  erected 
to  him,  than  why  they  were.  Motherwell  calls  fame 
"  a  flower  upon  a  dead  man's  heart."  "Were  it  other- 
wise, were  fame  contemporary,  it  would  be  but  the 
breath  of  popular  applause,  the  shallowest  phase  of 
reputation.  "  I  always  distrust  the  accounts  of  emi- 
nent men  by  their  contemporaries,"  says  Samuel 
Rogers.  "  None  of  us  has  any  reason  to  slander 
Homer  or  Julius  Caesar;  but  we  find  it  difficult  to 
divest  ourselves  of  prejudices  when  we  are  writing 
about  persons  with  whom  we  have  been  acquainted." 

It  is  tears  which  wash  the  eyes  of  poor  humanity, 
and  enable  it  to  see  the  previously  invisible  land  of 
beauty  ;  it  is  threshing  which  separates  the  wheat 
from  the  chaff;  every  ripened  genius  has  passed  its 
Gethsemane  hours.  "  The  eternal  stars  shine  out 
as  soon  as  it  is  dark  enough  !  "  says  Carlyle.     Izaak 


152         GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

Walton,  the  delightful  biographer  and  charming  mis- 
cellaneous writer,  was  an  humble  hosier  in  London 
in  early  life.  It  was  sorrow  caused  by  the  death  of 
his  wife  and  children  in  the  stived  quarters  of  a 
poor  city  tradesman,  which  led  him  finally  to  turn 
his  back  upon  the  great  metropolis  and  seek  a  home 
in  the  country.  What  seemed  to  him  to  be  "  dim  fu- 
nereal tapers,"  proved  to  be  "  heaven's  distant  lamps." 
Influenced  by  the  inspiring  surroundings  of  Nature,  he 
produced  his  "  Complete  Angler  ; "  of  which  Charles 
Lamb  said,  "  It  might  sweeten  a  man's  temper  at  any 
time  to  read  it,"  and  which  modern  criticism  has  pro- 
nounced one  of  the  best  pastorals  in  the  English  lan- 
guage. Spenser,  author  of  the  "  Faerie  Queene,"  of 
whose  birth  little  is  known,  died  in  great  destitution, 
though  he  was  buried  near  Chaucer  in  Westminster 
Abbey.  Of  his  poetry  Campbell  says :  "  He  threw 
the  soul  of  harmony  into  our  verse,  and  made  it  more 
warmly,  tenderly,  and  magnificently  descriptive  than 
it  ever  was  before,  or,  with  a  few  exceptions,  it  has 
ever  been  since."  The  best  critics  agree  that  the 
originality  and  richness  of  his  allegorical  personages 
vie  with  the  splendor  of  ancient  mythology. 

Let  us  not  forget  to  speak  of  Schiller  in  his  early 
indigence  and  distress,  wanting  friends  and  wanting 
bread,  but  yet  bravely  fighting  the  battle  of  life.  The 
humble  cottage  is  still  extant,  near  Leipsic,  where  he 
wrote  the  "  Song  of  Joy  "  in  those  trying  days.^     We 

^  "  Schiller,"  says  Coleridge,  "  has  the  material  sublime  to  pro- 
duce an  effect ;  he  sets  a  whole  town  on  fire,  and  throws  infants 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.       153 

recall  Crabbe,  stern  poet  of  life's  strivings  and  hard- 
ships, reduced  to  the  verge  of  starvation,  and  onlj 
relieved  by  the  noble  charity  of  Edmund  Burke  ;  and 
Otway,  one  of  the  most  admirable  of  English  dra- 
matists, author  of  "  Venice  Preserved,"  choked  to 
death  by  the  crust  of  bread  he  eagerly  swallowed 
when  weakened  by  famine.  Butler,  the  author  of 
"  Hudibras,"  ^  died  in  poverty  in  a  London  garret. 
Santara,  the  famous  French  painter,  died  neglected 
and  penniless  in  a  pauper  hospital.  Andrea  del 
Sarto  labored  hard  and  patiently  at  a  tailor's  bench 
to  procure  the  means  of  pursuing  art ;  and  Benvenuto 
Cellini  ^  languished  in  the  dungeons  of  San  Angelo. 

We  have  spoken  of  De  Foe  in  prison,  he  who  pro- 
duced two  hundred  volumes,  yet  died  insolvent.  Dr. 
Johnson  said  there  was  never  anything  written  by 
man  that  was  wished  longer  by  its  readers,  except 
"  Don  Quixote,"  "  Robinson  Crusoe,"  and  "  Pilgrim's 
Progress."  The  author  of  "  Robinson  Crusoe  "  says 
of  himself :  "  I  have  gone  through  a  life  of  wonders, 

with  their  mothers  into  the  flames,  or  locks  up  a  father  in  an  old 
tower.  But  Shakspeare  drops  a  handkerchief,  and  the  same  or 
greater  eflfect  follows." 

^  "  *  Hudibras/  "  says  Hallam,  "  was  incomparably  more  popular 
than  '  Paradise  Lost.'  No  poem  in  our  language  rose  at  once  to 
so  great  reputation ;  nor  can  this  remarkable  popularity  be  called 
ephemeral,  for  it  is  looked  upon  to-day  as  a  classic."  Butler  died 
in  1680. 

^  "Benvenuto  Cellini,  the  jeweller,  engraver,  poet,  musician, 
soldier,  sculptor,  and  lover:  and  in  all  so  truly  admirable!  "  His 
autobiography  remained  in  dusty  oblivion  for  the  period  of  two 
hundred  years  after  his  death  before  it  met  the  public  eye. 


154        GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

and  am  the  subject  of  a  great  variety  of  providences. 
I  have  been  fed  more  by  miracles  than  Elijah  when 
the  ravens  were  his  purveyors.  In  the  school  of 
affliction  I  have  learned  more  philosophy  than  at  the 
academy,  and  more  divinity  than  from  the  pulpit. 
In  prison  I  have  learned  that  liberty  does  not  con- 
sist in  open  doors  and  the  egress  and  regress  of  loco- 
motion. I  have  seen  the  rough  side  of  the  world  as 
well  as  the  smooth,  and  have  in  less  than  half  a  year 
tasted  the  difference  between  the  closet  of  a  king 
and  the  dungeon  of  Newgate."  "  Talent  is  often  to 
be  envied,"  says  Holmes,  "  and  genius  very  commonly 
to  be  pitied  ;  it  stands  twice  the  chance  of  the  other 
of  dying  in  a  hospital,  in  jail,  in  debt,  in  bad  repute." 
The  example  of  Robert  Greene's  life  carries  with  it 
an  impressive  moral.  He  was  well  educated,  taking 
his  degree  at  Cambridge,  England,  and  was  a  success- 
ful playwright  and  poet ;  but  he  was  also  improvident 
and  reckless  in  his  life,  exhibiting  more  than  the  usual 
eccentricities  of  genius.  He  squandered  his  patrimony 
in  dissipation,  and  died  in  great  poverty.  His  last 
book, "  The  Groatsworth  of  Wit  bought  with  a  Million 
of  Repentance,"  is  a  book  both  curious  and  raro.^ 

1  "We  quote  a  verse  from  his  "  Death-Bed  Lament,"  contained 
in  this  volume  :  — 

"Deceiving  world,  that  with  alhiring  toys 
Hast  made  my  life  the  sulyect  of  thy  scorn, 
And  scornest  now  to  lend  thy  fading  joys, 
To  out-length  my  life,  whom  friends  have  left  forlorn;  — 
How  well  are  they  that  die  ere  they  are  horn, 
And  never  see  thy  slights,  which  few  men  slum, 
Till  unawares  they  helpless  are  undone  ! " 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        155 

With  all  his  dissipated  proclivities,  Henry  Fielding 
had  much  more  genius  than  Robert  Greene.  He  too 
was  constantly  poor  through  his  own  recklessness. 
Lady  Montagu,  who  was  a  kinswoman  of  his,  said: 
"  He  was  always  wanting  money,  and  would  have 
wanted  it  had  his  hereditary  lands  been  as  extensive 
as  his  imagination."  And  yet  he  was  a  marvel  of  in- 
dustry, ever  slaving  with  the  pen,  writing  often  under 
excruciating  pain,  and  producing  his  most  famous 
work,  "  Tom  Jones,"  as  has  been  said,  with  an  ache 
and  a  pain  to  every  sentence.  He  was,  as  usual,  very 
short  of  money  when  this  work  was  finished,  and 
tried  to  sell  it  to  a  second-class  publisher  for  twenty- 
five  pounds.  Thomson  the  poet  heard  of  this  from 
Fielding,  and  told  him  to  come  to  Miller  the  book- 
publisher.  This  individual  gave  it  to  his  wife  to  read, 
and  she  bade  him  to  secure  it  by  all  means ;  so  the 
publisher  offered  the  impecunious  author  two  hundred 
guineas  for  it,  and  the  bargain  was  closed,  to  the  entire 
satisfaction  of  both  parties.^  Critics  have  remarked 
upon  the  similarity  between  Steele  and  Fielding,  though 
attributing  the  greater  genius  and  learning  to  the 
latter.  They  were  certainly  alike  in  one  respect; 
namely,  as  regarded  a  chronic  state  of  impecuniosity. 

^  Before  Miller  died,  he  had  cleared  over  eighteen  thousand 
pounds  by  the  publication  of  "  Tom  Jones."  The  number  of  edi- 
tions that  has  been  published  is  almost  fabulous.  The  popularity 
of  Fielding  may  be  judged  of  from  what  Dr.  Johnson  says  of  his 
"Amelia":  "It  was,  perhaps,  the  only  book,  of  which,  being 
printed  off  betimes  one  morning,  a  new  edition  was  called  for 
before  ni^ht." 


156        GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

Fielding  said  of  himself  that  he  had  no  choice  but  to  be 
a  hackney  writer  or  a  hackney  coachman  for  a  living. 
His  genius  deserved  a  better  fate.  Owing  to  his  pov- 
erty he  was  forced  to  throw  upon  the  market  many  pro- 
ductions which  he  had  much  better  have  thrown  into 
the  fire.  Fortunately,  in  literature  it  is  the  rule  that 
the  unworthy  perishes,  and  only  the  good  remains. 
Many  of  Fielding's  works  have  a  just  and  lasting 
fame,  and  no  library  is  complete  without  them.  In 
spite  of  his  many  imperfections,  which  made  brusque 
Dr.  Johnson  refuse  to  sit  at  table  with  him,  there  was 
much  that  was  fine  and  lovable  in  Harry  Fielding,  — 
truthful,  generous  to  a  fault,  and  with  wit  and  wisdom 
marvellously  combined.  Gibbon,  speaking  of  his  own 
genealogy,  refers  to  the  fact  of  Fielding  being  of  the 
same  family  as  the  Earl  of  Denbigh,  who,  in  common 
with  the  imperial  family  of  Austria,  is  descended 
from  the  celebrated  Rodolph  of  Hapsburg.  "  While 
one  branch,"  he  says,  "  have  contented  themselves 
with  being  sheriffs  of  Leicestershire  and  justices  of 
the  peace,  the  other  has  furnished  emperors  of  Ger- 
many and  kings  of  Spain ;  but  the  magnificent  ro- 
mance of  '  Tom  Jones '  will  be  read  with  pleasure 
when  the  palace  of  the  Escurial  is  in  ruins  and  the 
imperial  eagle  of  Austria  is  rolling  in  the  dust." 

Justice,  like  the  sword  of  Damocles,  is  ever  sus- 
pended. Nemesis  is  not  dead,  but  sleepeth.  Some- 
times old  age  seizes  upon  an  ill-spent  life,  and  gives 
us  a  striking  example  of  the  vicissitudes  of  genius. 
Dean  Swift,  the  great  master  of  biting   satire  and 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        157 

felicitous  analogy,  possessing  the  rarest  qualities  of 
wit,  humor,  and  eloquence,  was  yet  so  paradoxical 
and  inconsistent  withal,  as  to  lie  under  the  suspicion 
of  madness  half  of  his  life.  Ambitious,  talented,  ever 
seeking  preferment,  never  satisfied,  now  a  busy  Whig 
and  now  a  noisy  Tory,  he  was  a  perfect  brigand  in 
politics,  and  his  motto  was,  "  Stand  and  deliver." 
Swift's  bitterness,  scorn,  and  subsequent  misan- 
thropy were  the  sequence  of  disappointment.  "All 
my  endeavors  to  distinguish  myself,"  he  wrote  to 
Bolingbroke,  "were  only  for  want  of  a  great  title 
and  fortune,  that  I  might  be  used  like  a  lord  by  those 
who  have  an  opinion  of  my  parts ;  whether  riglit  or 
wrong  is  no  great  matter."  Coarse,  sceptical,  and 
irreligious,^  he  was  arrogant  where  he  dared  to  be, 
and  cautious  with  his  money,  though  having  a  repu- 
tation for  charity.  "  If  you  were  in  a  strait,"  asks 
Thackeray,  "  would  you  like  such  a  benefactor  ?  I 
think  I  would  rather  have  had  a  potato  and  a  friendly 
word  from  Goldsmith,  than  be  beholden  to  the  Dean 
for  a  guinea  and  a  dinner."  Heartlessly  vibrating 
between  Stella  and  Vanessa,  to  the  misery  and  morti- 
fication of  both,  he  finally  married  the  former,  only 
to  separate  from  her  at  the  church  door.     We  are 

^  Swift  has  had  many  biographers  ;  his  life  has  been  told  by  the 
kindest  and  most  good-natured  of  men,  Scott,  who  admired  but 
could  not  bring  himself  to  love  him  ;  and  by  stout  old  John- 
son, who,  forced  to  admit  him  into  the  company  of  poets,  receives 
the  famous  Irishman,  and  takes  off  his  hat  to  him  with  a  bow  of 
surly  recognition,  scans  him  from  head  to  foot,  and  passes  over  to 
the  other  side  of  the  street.  —  Tluickeray. 


158         GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

fain  to  abhor  the  man  while  we  freely  acknowledge 
the  lustre  of  his  genius,  and  to  see  only  providential 
justice  in  his  fate,  when  in  the  later  years  of  his  life, 
grown  morose,  misanthropic,  and  solitary,  watched 
at  all  times  by  a  keeper,  his  memory  and  other  facul- 
ties failed  him,  and  the  great  Dean  became  a  picture 
of  death  in  life.  He  made  many  enemies,  and  was 
bitterly  criticised  by  his  contemporaries,  often  not 
without  ample  justice.  He  has  been  stigmatized  as 
"the  apostate  politician,  the  perjured  lover,  and  the 
ribald  priest,  —  a  heart  burning  with  hatred  against 
the  whole  human  race,  a  mind  richly  laden  with 
images  from  the  gutter  and  the  lazar-house,"  ^ 

At  complete  antipodes  to  this  portrait  is  that  of 
Richard  Steele,  the  popular  dramatist,  essayist,  and 
editor ;  the  friend  of  Addison,  and  one  of  the  wittiest 
and  most  popular  men  of  his  day.  His  also  was  an 
erratic  career,  alternating  between  vice  and  virtue ;  or, 
as  he  says  of  himself,  always  sinning  and  repenting, 
until  he  finally  outlived  his  relish  for  society,  his  in- 
come, and  his  health.  "  He  was  the  best-natured 
creature  in  the  world,"  says  Young ;  "  even  in  his 
worst  state  of  health  he  seemed  to  desire  nothing  but 
to  please  and  be  pleased."  Worn  out  and  forgotten 
by  his  contemporaries,  Steele  retired  into  the  country 

^  Swift  at  one  time  in  his  subtle  way  declared  with  elaborate 
reasons,  that  on  the  whole  it  would  be  impolitic  to  abolish  the 
Christian  religion  in  England.  We  have  yet  to  discover  a  finer 
piece  of  irony.  His  exquisitely  ridiculous  proposition  to  utilize 
for  food  the  babies  born  in  Ireland,  so  as  to  prevent  their  becom- 
ing a  burden  to  the  country,  will  also  be  remembered. 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.       159 

and  left  posterity  to  appreciate  liis  genius.  With  a 
warm  heart  overflowing  with  love  of  wife  and  children, 
his  checkered  life  was  yet  full  of  faults  and  careless 
blunders,  many  of  which  were  directly  traceable  to 
strong  drink.  Little  learned  in  books,  but  with  a 
large  knowledge  of  men  and  the  world,  he  wrote  with 
captivating  simplicity  and  in  the  most  colloquial  style. 
Social  and  kindly  in  the  extreme,  his  whole  charac- 
ter is  in  strong  contrast  with  the  harshness  of  Swift 
and  the  dignified  loneliness  of  Addison.^  Somehow 
we  forget  about  the  sword  of  Damocles,  and  ignore 
Nemesis  altogether  in  connection  with  the  name  of 
Steele ;  and  while  we  do  not  forget  his  weaknesses,  we 
recollect  more  readily  his  loving  nature,  his  apprecia- 
tion of  beauty  and  goodness,  and  his  warm  sympathy 
and  kindness  of  heart.  It  was  Steele  who  said  of  a 
noble  lady  of  his  time,  that  to  love  her  was  a  liberal 
education. 

Dr.  Johnson  spent  much  of  his  early  life  in  penury, 
wandering  in  the  streets,  sometimes  all  night,  without 
the  means  to  pay  for  a  lodging.  A  garret  was  a  luxury 
to  him  in  those  days.^    Alas!   what  a   satire   upon 

1  It  is  in  the  nature  of  such  lords  of  intellect  to  be  solitary ; 
they  are  in  the  world,  hut  not  of  it ;  and  our  minor  struggles, 
brawls,  successes,  pass  over  them.  — Thackeray. 

2  "  In  London,"  says  Dawson,  "  Johnson  suffered  a  great  deal 
from  poverty,  and  made  use  of  many  little  artifices  to  eke  out  his 
scanty  means.  All  the  great  kindly  acts  which  his  large  manly 
heart  prompted  him  to  do  cost  him  much  self-denial.  When  he 
said  that  a  man  could  live  very  well  in  a  garret  for  one-and-six- 
pence  a  week,  the  statement  was  not  a  speculative  but  an  experi- 
mental one." 


160        GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

learning  and  authorship !  Notwithstanding  his  power- 
ful intellect,  he  was  subject  to  such  a  singular  and 
even  superstitious  dread  of  death,  that  he  could  hardly 
be  persuaded  to  execute  his  will  in  later  years.  When 
Garrick  showed  Johnson  his  fine  house  and  grounds 
at  Hampton  Court,  the  mind  of  the  great  lexicogra- 
pher reverted  to  his  special  weakness,  saying,  "  Ah ! 
David,  David,  these  are  the  things  which  make  a 
death-bed  terrible."  When  he  and  Garrick  both  be- 
came famous,  they  used  to  chaff  each  other  about  who 
came  to  London  with  two  shillings,  and  who  had  two- 
and-sixpence.  Johnson  was  a  confirmed  hypochon- 
driac ;  hence  the  gloom  and  morbid  irritability  of  his 
disposition.  His  disorder  entailed  upon  him  perpetual 
fretfulness  and  mental  despondency.  Had  it  not  been 
for  the  wonderful  vigor  of  his  mind,  —  as  in  the  case 
of  Cowper,  who  was  similarly  affected,  —  he  would 
have  been  the  inmate  of  a  mad-house.  Macaulay  says 
of  Johnson  grown  old :  "  In  the  fulness  of  his  fame, 
and  in  the  enjoyment  of  a  competent  fortune,  he  is 
better  known  to  us  than  any  other  man  in  history. 
Everything  about  him,  his  coat,  his  wig,  his  figure,  his 
face,  his  scrofula,  his  St.  Vitus's  dance,  his  rolling 
walk,  his  blinking  eye,  the  outward  signs  which  too 
clearly  marked  his  approbation  of  his  dinner,  his  in- 
satiable appetite  for  fish-sauce  and  veal-pie  with  plums, 
his  inextinguishable  thirst  for  tea,  his  trick  of  touch- 
ing the  posts  as  he  walked,  his  mysterious  practice 
of  treasuring  up  scraps  of  orange-peel,  his  morning 
slumbers,  his  midnight  disputations,  his  contortions, 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        161 

his  mutterings,  his  gruntings,  his  puffings,  his  vigor- 
ous, acute,  and  ready  eloquence,  his  sarcastic  wit,  his 
vehemence,  his  indolence,  his  fits  of  tempestuous  rage, 
his  queer  inmates,  old  Mr.  Levitt  and  blind  Mrs.  "Wil- 
liams, the  cat  Hodge  and  the  negro  Frank,  —  are  all 
as  familiar  to  us  as  the  objects  by  which  we  have  been 
surrounded  from  childhood." 

The  greatest  talents  are  usually  coupled  with  the 
most  acute  sensibility.  Rousseau  imagined  a  phantom 
ever  by  his  side ;  Luther  had  his  demon,  who  fre- 
quented his  study  at  all  hours.  So  realistic  was  the 
great  reformer's  imagination,  that  he  was  accustomed 
to  throw  at  the  intruder  any  article  nearest  at  hand. 
The  confusion  thus  caused  may  easily  be  conceived 
when  on  one  such  occasion  he  cast  his  inkstand,  with 
its  contents,  at  the  supposed  demon.  Cowper's  weird 
and  fatal  messenger  will  also  be  remembered.  Tasso's 
spirits  glided  in  the  air,^  and  Mozart's  "  man  in  black  " 
induced  him  to  write  his  own  requiem.  But  Johnson 
saw  omens  in  the  most  trifling  circumstances.  If  he 
chanced,  in  passing  out  of  the  house,  to  place  his  left 
foot  foremost,  he  would  return  and  start  with  the 
right,  as  promising  immunity  from  accident  and  a 
safe  return.  Strange  as  it  may  seem,  this  eminent 
and  profound  man  put  faith  in  a  long  list  of  equally 
ridiculous  omens  in  every-day  life.     He  was  a  most 

^  Tasso  was  often  obliged  to  borrow  a  crown  from  a  friend  to 
pay  for  his  month's  lodging.  He  has  left  us  a  pretty  sonnet  to  his 
cat,  in  which  he  begs  the  light  of  her  eyes  to  write  by,  being  too 
poor  to  purchase  a  candle. 

11 


162         GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

voluminous  and  versatile  writer,  and  excelled  in  de- 
lineating female  characters  ;  though  Burke  did  say  "  all 
the  ladies  of  his  dramatis  personse  were  Johnsons  in 
petticoats."  Few  persons  with  means  so  limited  as 
his  ever  spent  more  for  charitable  purposes  ;  and  if 
his  disposition  was  irritable,  his  heart  was  kind. 
"  He  loved  the  poor,"  says  Mrs.  Thrale,  "  as  I  never 
yet  saw  any  one  else  love  them.  He  nursed  whole 
nests  of  people  in  his  house,  where  the  lame,  the  blind, 
the  sick,  and  the  sorrowful  found  a  sure  retreat." 
Now  and  then,  throughout  Johnson's  life,  we  get  a 
glimpse  that  sliows  us  the  man,  not  as  the  world  at 
large  knew  him,  but  as  his  unmasked  heart  appeared. 
Does  the  reader  recall  the  incident  of  his  kneeling  by 
the  dying  bed  of  an  aged  woman,  and  giving  her  a 
pious  kiss,  afterwards  recording,  "  We  parted  firmly, 
hoping  to  meet  again  "  ? 

Melancholy  has  been  the  very  demon  of  genius,  the 
skeleton  in  the  closet  of  poets  and  philosophers. 
Burton  composed  his  "  Anatomy  of  Melancholy "  to 
divert  his  own  depressed  spirits.^  Cowper  is  another 
example.  He  says  of  himself,  "  I  was  struck  with 
such  a  dejection  of  spirits  as  none  but  they  who 
have  felt  the  same  can  have  the  least  conception 
of."     He  was  tenderly  attached,  it  will  be  remem- 

1  Burton  is  said  to  have  been,  in  the  intervals  of  his  vapors, 
the  most  facetious  companion  in  the  university  where  he  was 
educated.  So  great  was  the  demand  for  his  "  Anatomy  of  Melan- 
choly," when  published,  that  his  publisher  is  said  to  have  acc[uired 
an  estate  hy  the  sale  of  it. 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        163 

bered,  to  his  cousin  Theodora,  who  returned  his 
love ;  but  disappointment  was  the  lot  of  both,  as 
her  parents,  doubtless  for  good  reasons,  forbade  the 
union.  While  the  vastly  humorous  and  popular  bal- 
lad of  "  John  Gilpin  "  was  delighting  the  Londoners, 
and  was  being  read  to  crowded  audiences  at  high 
prices,  the  poor  unhappy  author  was  confined  as  a 
lunatic,  and,  to  use  his  own  words,  was  "  encompassed 
by  the  midnight  of  absolute  despair."  ^  The  poet,  like 
the  clown  in  the  ring,  when  he  appears  before  the 
public  must  be  all  smiles  and  jests,  though  concealing 
perhaps  an  agony  of  physical  or  mental  suffering. 
We  know  little  of  the  real  aspect  which  the  face  of 
Harlequin  presents  beneath  his  mask.  Be  sure  he 
has  his  sorrows,  deep  and  dark,  in  spite  of  the  grin- 
ning features  which  he  wears.  Who  does  not  recall 
the  words  which  Thackeray  makes  his  old  and  faith- 
ful gold  pen  utter  :  — 

"  I've  help'd  him  to  pen  many  a  line  for  bread ; 
To  joke,  with  sorrow  aching  in  his  head  ; 
And  make  your  laughter  Avhen  his  own  heart  bled." 

Was  there  ever  pleasanter  or  more  genial  reading 
than  "  Cowpcr's  Familiar  Letters,"  full  to  the  brim 
with  sparkling  humor  ?     Yet  these  were  coined  from 

1  How  appropriate  are  the  lines  by  Mrs.  Browning,  dedicated 
to  Cowper's  grave  :  — 

"  0  poets  !  from  a  maniac's  tongue  was  poured  the  deathless  singing  ! 
0  Christians !  at  your  cross  of  hope  a  hopeless  hand  was  clinging ! 
0  men !   this  man  in  brotherhood  your  weary  paths  beguiling, 
Groaned  inly  while  he  taught  you  peace,  and  died  while  we  were  smiling  !  " 


1G4         GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

his  brain  while  in  a  state  of  hopeless  dejection.  "  I 
wonder,"  he  writes  to  Mr.  Newton,  "  that  a  sportive 
thought  should  ever  knock  at  the  door  of  my  intellect, 
and  still  more  that  it  should  gain  admittance.  It  is 
as  if  Harlequin  should  introduce  himself  into  the 
gloomy  chamber  where  a  corpse  is  deposited  in  state." 
He  was  one  of  the  most  amiable  and  gifted,  but  also 
one  of  the  unhappiest,  of  the  children  of  genius. 

Christopher  Smart,  poet,  scholar,  and  prose  writer, 
was  an  eccentric  individual,  but  of  such  undoubted 
ability  as  to  challenge  the  admiration  and  win  the 
friendship  of  Dr.  Johnson,  who  wrote  his  biography. 
His  habits  finally  became  very  bad,  so  that,  delirium 
setting  in,  it  was  found  necessary  to  confine  him  in 
an  asylum.  While  there  he  wrote  a  very  remarkable 
religious  poem  entitled  the  "  Song  of  David,"  produced 
in  his  rational  moments,  which  exhibited  sublimity 
and  power,  and  is  still  considered  one  of  the  curi- 
osities of  English  literature.  Smart  improved  in 
health  and  was  discharged  with  his  full  reason  re- 
stored, but  was  soon  after  committed  to  the  King's 
Bench  prison  for  debt ;  and  there  he  died,  poverty- 
stricken  and  neglected,  in  1770.  Samuel  Boyle  was  a 
contemporary  of  Smart,  and  was  possessed  of  equal 
genius  whether  with  the  pen  or  the  bottle.  Poor  fel- 
low !  he  got  an  indifferent  living  as  a  fag  author, 
though  he  was  capable  of  fine  literary  work.  His 
poem  entitled  the  "  Deity  "  fully  proved  this.  Ogle, 
the  London  publisher,  used  to  employ  Boyle  to  trans- 
late some  of  Chaucer's  tales  into  modern  English, 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.       165 

which  he  did  with  much  excellence  and  spirit,  and  for 
which  he  received  threepence  per  printed  line.  The 
poor  genius  sank  lower  and  lower,  lived  in  a  miserable 
garret,  wearing  a  blanket  about  his  shoulders,  having 
no  vest  or  coat,  and  was  at  last  found  famished  to 
death  with  a  pen  in  his  hand.  "  Hunger  and  naked- 
ness," says  Carlyle,  "  perils  and  revilings,  the  prison, 
the  cross,  the  poison-chalice,  have  in  most  times  and 
countries  been  the  market  price  the  world  has  offered 
for  wisdom,  the  welcome  with  which  it  has  greeted 
those  who  have  come  to  enlighten  and  purify  it. 
Homer  and  Socrates  and  the  Christian  apostles  be- 
long to  old  days  ;  but  the  world's  Martyrology  was 
not  completed  with  them." 

Richard  Payne  Knight,  the  Greek  scholar  and  an- 
tiquary, was  a  remarkable  genius  in  his  way.  His 
gift  of  ancient  coins,  bronzes,  and  works  of  art  pre- 
sented to  the  British  Museum  was  valued  at  fifty 
thousand  pounds.  He  was  a  poet  of  more  than  ordi- 
nary ability,  and  wrote,  among  other  prose  works, 
"  An  Analytical  Enquiry  into  the  Principles  of  Taste." 
He  was  for  a  number  of  consecutive  years  a  member 
of  Parliament.  He  had  singular  attacks  of  melan- 
choly, and  finally  developed  such  a  loathing  of  life 
that  he  destroyed  himself  with  poison. 

Poverty  has  nearly  always  been  the  patrimony  of 
the  Muses.  "  An  author  who  attempts  to  live  on  the 
manufacture  of  his  imagination,"  says  Whipple,  "  is 
constantly  coquetting  with  starvation."  A  glance  at 
the  brief  life  of  Chatterton  is  evidence  enough  of  the 


1G6         GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

truth  of  this  remark.     He  began  to  "write  poems  of 
extraordinary  merit  at  an  immature  age,  and  when  a 
mere  boy  came  up  to  London  to  seek  for  literary  em- 
ployment as  a  means  of  support.     He  wrote  sermons, 
poems,  essays,  and   political  articles  with  an  ability 
far  beyond  his  years.     He  was  indeed  a  prodigy  of 
genius,  and  probably  would  have  stood  in  the  front 
rank  of  English  poets  had  he  lived  to  maturer  years. 
No  one  ever  equalled  him  at  the  same  age,  and  Tasso 
alone,  says  Campbell,  can  be  compared  to  him  as  a 
youthful  prodigy.     His  life  in  the  metropolis  was  one 
of  great  hardsliip  and  deprivation,  as  he  often  suffered 
for  want  of  the  simplest  necessities  of  life,  and  grew 
so   emaciated  in  appearance  from  the  lack  of  food 
that  strangers,  sometimes  meeting  him  in  the  street, 
forced  him  to  accept  a  dinner  which  he  was  too  proud 
to  ask  for.     All  this  while,  with  much  more  consid- 
eration for  the  feelings  of  the  family  at  home  than 
thought  for  himself,  he  wrote  cheerful  letters  to  his 
mother,  and  even  sent  small  and  acceptable  presents 
to  his  sister,  in  order  to  content  them  for  his  absence. 
Seeking  only  expression  for  the  divine  afflatus  within 
him,  he  had  no  thought  of  self,  no  care  for  the  morrow. 
By  degrees,  young   as   he   was,  he   sank   into  utter 
despondency,  and  was  reduced  to  actual  starvation. 
He  was  found  at  last  upon  his  bed  of  straw,  having 
taken  his  own  life  in  a  fit  of  desperation.     At  the 
time  he  swallowed  the  fatal  poison  he  was  not  quite 
nineteen  years  of  age. 

George  Combe,  the  English  author,  encountered  a 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        167 

full  share  of  the  vicissitudes  of  genius.  He  was  ca- 
pable of  much  theoretical  goodness,  but  was  not  prac- 
tical in  that  respect.  He  wrote  in  his  old  age,  "  Few 
men  have  enjoyed  more  of  the  pleasures  and  brilliance 
of  life  than  myself  ; "  yet  he  died  in  the  King's  Bench, 
where  he  had  taken  refuge  from  his  creditors,  not  leav- 
ing enough  to  pay  the  expenses  of  his  funeral. 

Many  a  child  of  genius  has  been  compelled  to 
prostitute  godlike  powers  to  repel  the  gnawings  of 
hunger ;  as  for  instance  Holzman,  the  sagacious  Ori- 
ental scholar  and  professor  of  Greek,  who  sold  his 
notes  on  Dion  Cassius  for  a  dinner.  The  record  of 
this  learned  man's  struggles  with  dire  want  form 
a  pathetic  chapter  in  literary  history.  He  tells  us 
himself  that  at  the  age  of  eighteen  he  studied  to 
acquire  glory,  but  at  twenty-five  he  studied  to  get 
bread. 

While  these  pages  are  preparing  for  the  press,  Dr.. 
Moshlecli,  a  scientist,  and  the  master  of  ten  languages, 
has  died  in  the  county  almshouse  of  Erie,  Pennsyl- 
vania. He  was  a  Prussian  by  birth,  and  graduated 
with  high  honors  from  the  University  of  Bonn  ;  made 
medicine  a  specialty,  and  practised  the  profession  for 
several  years  in  Paris,  but  finally  turned  his  attention 
to  science,  and  afterwards  to  the  languages.  He  num- 
bered among  his  friends  many  illustrious  men,  chief 
of  whom  were  Darwin  and  Victor  Hugo.  At  the  be- 
ginning of  our  late  war  he  visited  this  country,  and 
accepted  a  position  as  Professor  of  Greek  and  Hebrew 
in  Bethany  College,  West  Virginia,  which  he  held  but 


1G8        GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

a  short  time,  owing  to  the  war  excitement.  He  sub- 
sequently practised  medicine  in  Ohio  and  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  wrote  for  scientific  publications.  He  was 
so  much  interested  in  his  work  that  he  neglected  to 
make  provision  for  his  old  age ;  and  when  he  could 
no  longer  pursue  his  profession,  this  man,  who  had 
associated  with  the  most  learned  men  of  Europe,  was 
compelled  to  apply  to  a  poorhouse  for  shelter  and 
bread.  Even  after  he  entered  the  almshouse  he  pre- 
pared a  number  of  young  men  for  college,  and  lectured 
occasionally  before  the  Erie  Historical  Society. 

Few  authors  are  so  calm  of  spirit,  or  so  assured  of 
their  position,  as  not  to  shrink  from  well-expressed 
criticism,  and  especially  when  it  comes  in  the  form  of 
ridicule,  —  forgetting  that  although  an  ass  may  bray 
at  a  classic  statue,  an  ass  cannot  create  one.^  So  sen- 
sitive was  even  Newton  to  critical  attacks,that  Whiston, 
another  English  philosopher,  and  a  personal  friend  of 
Sir  Isaac,  said  he  was  quite  unmanned  when  any  dec- 
laration of  his  was  called  in  question  by  the  reviewers ; 
and  further,  that  he  (Whiston)  lost  Newton's  favor, 
which  he  had  enjoyed  for  twenty  years,  by  contradict- 
ing him  on  some  point  of  his  printed  works ;  "  for,"  he 
adds,  "  no  man  was  of  a  more  fearful  temper."  Some 
critics  use  the  pen  as  the  surgeon  does  the  scalpel : 

^  According  to  Disraeli,  Dr.  Hawksworth,  who  was  employed 
by  the  English  Government  to  write  an  account  of  Captain  Cook's 
first  voyage,  and  who  was  the  intimate  friend  of  Dr.  Johnson, 
absolutely  died  from  the  effects  of  severe  criticism.  He  was  an 
extremely  graceful,  eflfective,  and  ready  writer. 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.       169 

they  do  not  analyze,  but  they  dissect.  The  flowers  of 
the  imagination,  like  the  life  of  the  body,  vanish  if 
too  closely  pressed.  "  Criticism,"  says  Richter,  "  often 
takes  from  the  tree  caterpillar  and  blossoms  together."  i 
Thus  was  the  heart  of  poor  Keats  crushed  and  broken 
by  the  malignant  severity  of  Gifford  in  the  "  Quarterly 
Review."  One  would  have  thought  that  this  captious 
critic,  who  by  his  own  talent  alone  had  worked  his 
way  from  the  cobbler's  bench  to  the  editorial  chair  of 
the  "  Quarterly,"  would  have  been  more  considerate 
towards  a  man  ^  who,  like  himself,  rose  from  humble 
associations.  It  only  proved  that  the  man  who  had 
successfully  cast  the  slough  of  vulgar  life,  had  still 
the  heart  of  a  clown.  Gifford  was  indignant  and 
sensitive  beyond  measure  at  a  published  criticism  on 
his  translation  of  Juvenal,  which  appeared  in  the 
"  Critical  Review  ; "  and  he  put  forth  a  sharp,  angry 
answer,  in  the  form  of  a  large  quarto  pamphlet.  No 
poet  ever  exhibited  a  more  vivid  perception  of  the 
beautiful,  or  greater  powers  of  fancy,  than  Keats ;  but 
the  bitterness  of  the  criticism  referred  to  was  too 
much  for  his  delicate  health  and   sensitive   nature, 

^  Eacine  encountered  much  harsh  criticism,  which  rendered 
him  very  unhappy.  He  told  his  son  in  after  years  that  he  suffered 
far  more  pain  from  the  fault  found  with  his  productions  than  he 
ever  experienced  pleasure  from  their  success. 

2  Richter's  remark  that  "some  souls  fall  from  heaven  like 
flowers,  but  ere  the  pure  fresh  buds  have  had  time  to  open,  they 
are  trodden  in  the  dust  of  the  earth,  and  lie  soiled  and  crushed 
beneath  the  foul  tread  of  some  brutal  hoof,"  has  been  aptly 
applied  to  Keats. 


170        GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

hastening,  if  it  did  not  actually  develop,  the  seeds  of 
consumption,  of  which  he  died.  Keats's  father  was  a 
livery-stable  keeper,  and  it  is  said  that  the  future  poet 
was  born  in  the  most  humble  quarters ;  but  the 
irresistible  fire  of  genius  lighted  his  path,  and  had  he 
lived  past  the  noon  of  life,  he  would  have  carved  his 
way  to  the  highest  fame.  He  finally  went  to  Rome, 
in  the  hope  of  recuperating  his  failing  health ;  but 
that  was  not  to  be.  In  the  last  day  of  his  illness  a 
companion  who  had  called  in,  asked  him  how  he  was. 
"  Better,  my  friend,"  he  answered  in  a  low  voice. 
"  I  feel  the  daisies  growing  over  me ! "  He  died  at 
Rome  in  his  twenty-sixth  year,  Feb.  23,  1821.  His 
body  lies  in  the  English  burial-ground  outside  the 
gates  of  the  ancient  city,  by  the  Appian  Way,  and 
near  to  the  pyramid  of  Cestius.  The  simple  slab  that 
marks  the  spot  interests  one  quite  as  much  as  many 
of  the  grand  historical  monuments  of  the  Via  Appia.^ 
"We  all  remember  the  touching  epitaph  from  his  own 
pen :  — 

"  Here  lies  one  whose  name  was  writ  in  water." 

As  to  the  effect  of  criticism  in  general,  we  are  told 
that  Pope  was  observed  to  writhe  in  his  chair  on  hear- 
ing the  letter  of  Gibber  mentioned,  with  other  severe 
criticism  on  the  product  of  his  hand  and  brain.     The 

1  Keats  modestly  admitted  the  shortcomings  of  his  early  com- 
positions. He  said,  "  I  have  written  independently,  without 
judgment ;  I  may  write  independently  and  with  judgment  here- 
after. The  genius  of  poetry  must  work  out  its  own  salvation  in 
a  man." 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.       171 

strictures,  deserved  and  undeserved,  which  were  pub- 
licly made  on  Montesquieu  are  said  to  have  hastened 
his  death.  Ritson's  extreme  sensitiveness  to  criti- 
cism ended  in  lunacy,  and  Racine  is  thought  by  many 
to  have  died  from  the  same  cause. 

Surely  disappointment  tracks  the  path  of  genius. 
Thus  Collins,  the  eminent  lyric  poet,  whose  "  Ode  to 
the  Passions"  has  made  his  name  famous  and  familiar 
in  our  day,  did  not  live  to  enjoy  his  literary  success  ; 
indeed,  his  death  is  known  to  have  been  hastened  by 
long  neglect.  The  last  half  of  his  brief  life  was  dark- 
ened by  melancholy,^  and  his  home  was  a  lunatic 
asylum.  The  money  received  from  his  publishers  as 
copyright  on  his  poems  he  voluntarily  refunded,  also 
paying  the  entire  expense  of  the  edition,  after  which 
he  made  a  bonfire  of  the  sheets.  As  we  have  seen  in 
so  many  other  instances,  it  was  left  for  posterity  to 
do  Collins  justice.  In  the  course  of  a  single  genera- 
tion, without  any  adventitious  aid  to  bring  them  into 
notice,  his  poems  have  come  to  rank  among  the  best 
of  their  kind  in  the  language.  Poor  Collins !  unfortu- 
nate in  love,  threatened  with  blindness,  and  harassed 
by  bailiffs  half  his  life,  his  career  was  one  of  unrest, 

1  Collins  was  deeply  attached  to  a  young  lady,  who  did  not 
return  his  passion,  and  there  is  little  douht  that  the  consequent 
disappointment  preyed  upon  his  mind  to  such  an  extent  as  finally 
to  dethrone  his  reason.  Dr.  Johnson  says  nothing  of  this,  but 
tells  us  how  "  he  loved  fairies,  genii,  giants,  and  monsters,"  and 
how  "he  delighted  to  rove  through  the  meanders  of  enchantment, 
to  gaze  on  the  magnificence  of  golden  palaces,  and  to  repose  by 
waterfalls  of  Elysian  gardens." 


172         GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

unhappiness,  and  despair ;  death,  the  comforter  of  him 
whom  time  cannot  console,  gave  the  poet  an  early 
grave.^ 

Small  was  the  portion  of  happiness  that  fell  to 
the  share  of  these  men  of  genius ;  the  lonely  places 
they  occupied  were  too  lofty  for  companionship. 
"  The  wild  summits  of  the  mountains  are  inaccessi- 
ble," says  Madame  Necker ;  "  only  eagles  and  reptiles 
can  get  there."  We  have  seen  how  hard  appears  the 
fate  of  genius  as  a  rule,  and  that  its  possession  is 
often  at  the  cost  of  great  deprivation  and  unhappi- 
ness. Is  it  not  difficult  to  recall  an  instance  where  a 
pronounced  genius  has  also  enjoyed  the  quiet  beauty 
of  domestic  life  ?  Wordsworth's  remark,  however, 
is  applicable  :  namely,  that  men  do  not  make  their 
homes  unhappy  because  they  have  genius,  but  because 
they  have  not  enough  genius.  The  conclusion  would 
seem  to  be  that  we  may  envy  talent,  but  must 
oftenest  pity  genius. 

About  half  a  century  since,  the  well-known  indis- 
cretions of  Shelley  caused  his  name  to  be  tabooed  in 
London  society,  though  in  moral  attributes  he  stood 
immeasurably  above  his  friend  Byron.  Still,  he  was 
amenable  enough  to  censure.     His  poetry  is  strikingly 

^  Johnson  met  Collins  one  day  with  a  book  under  his  arm,  at 
which  the  former  looked  inquiringly.  "  I  have  but  one  book," 
said  the  melancholy  poet ;  "  it  is  the  Bible."  After  his  death, 
which  occurred  in  his  thirty-sixth  year,  there  was  found  among 
his  papers  an  ode  on  the  "  Superstitions  of  the  Highlands." 
In  his  last  days  he  committed  many  manuscript  poems  to  the 
flames. 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADO  W.        173 

brilliant ;  each  line  is  a  complete  thought,  and  the 
whole  sparkles  like  sunlight  upon  the  sea.  After  be- 
ing expelled  from  college  he  made  a  "  Gretna  Green  " 
marriage  with  Harriet  Westbrook,  but  eventually 
abandoned  her  with  his  two  children,  —  the  woman 
who  had  given  up  all  for  him,  and  who  in  her  dark 
hour  of  sorrow  and  despair  drowned  herself .^  We  can 
describe  Shelley's  character  no  better  than  by  com- 
paring it  to  his  longest  poem,  the  "  Revolt  of  Islam," 
which  abounds  in  passages  of  surpassing  beauty,  but 
which  as  a  whole  is  deficient  in  connection  and  human 
interest.  It  is  as  erratic  as  his  own  life.^  There  is 
so  much  of  bad  in  the  best,  and  of  good  in  the  worst, 
that  few  of  us  are  willing  to  sit  in  judgment  upon 
poor  humanity.  Time  has  softened  the  asperity  of 
our  feelings,  and  the  productions  of  Shelley's  genius 
are  now  justly  admired.  When,  after  his  fatal  acci- 
dent, his  body  was  washed  on  shore,  a  copy  of  Keats's 
poems  was  found  in  his  pocket.  His  ashes  now  rest 
near  those  of  his  brother  poet  outside  the  gates  of 
Rome.  As  a  striking  example  of  his  remarkable  sen- 
sibility, we  may  mention  the  effect  upon  him  when 

^  Shelley's  favorite  amusement  had  been  boating  and  sailing. 
While  returning  one  day  —  July  8,  1822  —  from  Leghorn,  whither 
he  had  been  to  welcome  Leigh  Hunt  to  Italy,  his  boat  was  struck 
by  a  squall  and  he  was  dro^Tied.  Thus  he  met  the  same  fate  as 
his  deserted  wife. 

2  As  to  Shelley's  mode  of  composition,  he  said :  *'  When  my 
brain  gets  heated  with  thought,  it  soon  boils  and  throws  off  images 
and  words  faster  than  I  can  skim  them  off.  In  the  morning,  when 
cooled  down,  out  of  that  rude  sketch,  as  you  justly  call  it,  I  shall 
attempt  a  drawing." 


174         GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

he  first  listened  to  the  readmg  of  Coleridge's  "  Cliris- 
tabel "  ^  ill  a  small  social  circle.  Says  one  who  was 
present,  "  Shelley  was  so  affected  that  he  fainted 
dead  away."  He  was  consistent,  and  lived  up  to  his 
convictions.  While  listening  to  the  organ  in  an 
Italian  cathedral,  he  sighed  that  charity  instead  of 
faith  was  not  regarded  as  the  substance  of  religion. 
The  maintenance  of  his  opinion  cost  him  a  fine  es- 
tate, so  constant  and  profuse  were  his  charities 
towards  impoverished  men  of  letters  and  the  poor 
generally. 

The  author  of  an  "  Elegy  Written  in  a  Country 
Church-Yard  "  ^  was  absolutely  a  slave  to  diffidence 
and  painful  shyness,  —  a  characteristic  which  led  to 
bitter  persecution  while  he  was  a  young  student ;  nor 
could  he  ever  quite  divest  himself  of  this  nervous 
timidity.  Hazlitt  says  of  Gray  that  "he  was  terri- 
fied out  of  his  wits  at  the  bare  idea  of  having  his 
portrait  prefixed  to  his  works,  and  probably  died 
from  nervous  agitation  at  the  publicity  into  which 
his  name  had  been  forced  by  his  learning,  taste,  and 
genius."     On  the  death  of  Cibber,  the  vacant  laureate- 

1  This  production  was  circulated  in  manuscript  only  for  the 
first  three  or  four  years  after  it  was  completed.  Lockhart  says 
that  it  was  hearing  it  read  from  manuscript  that  led  Scott  to  pro- 
duce the  "Lay  of  the  Last  Mmstrel." 

2  "  Genius  is  rarely  conscious  of  its  power,"  says  Hazlitt ;  "  our 
own  idea  is  that  if  Gray  had  had  an  eye  to  his  posthumous  fame, 
had  cast  a  sidelong  glance  to  the  approbation  of  posterity,  he 
would  have  failed  in  producing  a  work  of  lasting  texture-  like 
this." 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.       175 

ship  "was  offered  to  Gray,  but  his  sensitiveness  led 
him  to  decline  it.^ 

'  1  It  is  not  many  years  since  the  auctioneer  in  a  public  sales- 
room in  London,  in  the  course  of  his  advertised  list  of  objects  to 
be  disposed  of,  held  up  two  small  half  sheets  of  paper,  all  written 
over,  torn,  and  mutilated.  He  called  these  scraps  most  interest- 
ing, but  apologized  for  their  condition.  There  was  present  a 
highly  intelligent  company  of  amateurs  in  autographs,  attracted  by 
the  sale.  The  first  offer  for  these  scraps  of  paper  was  ten  pounds. 
The  bids  rose  rapidly  until  sixty-five  was  reached,  when  they  were 
knocked  off ;  but  as  there  proved  to  be  two  bidders  at  that  price, 
it  was  necessary  to  put  them  up  again.  They  were  finally  closed 
at  one  hundred  pounds.  These  scraps  of  paper,  which  were 
almost  a  hundred  years  old  to  a  day,  were  the  original  copy  of 
"  Gray's  Elegy." 


CHAPTER  yn. 

In  these  desultory  chapters  we  have  more  than  once 
seen  that  fame  appeals  to  posterity ;  but  in  the  in- 
stance of  Byron  it  was  contemporary,  for  he  tells  us 
he  "  awoke  one  morning  and  found  himself  famous." 
No  man's  errors  were  ever  more  closely  observed  and 
recorded  than  his  ;  and  we  are  still  too  near  the  period 
of  his  life  to  forget  his  foibles  and  remember  only  the 
productions  of  his  genius.  Byron,  like  Pope,  was  a 
sufferer  from  physical  deformity,  and  much  of  the 
morbid  sensibility  of  both  arose  from  their  common 
misfortune.  Macaulay,  speaking  of  Byron,  says  : 
*'  He  had  naturally  a  generous  and  feeling  heart,  but 
his  temper  was  wayward  and  irritable.  He  had  a 
head  which  statuaries  loved  to  copy,  and  a  foot  the 
deformity  of  which  the  beggar  in  the  street  mimicked. 
Distinguished  at  once  by  the  strength  and  by  the 
weakness  of  his  intellect,  affectionate  yet  perverse,  a 
poor  lord  and  a  handsome  cripple,  he  required,  if  ever 
man  required,  the  finest  and  most  judicious  training. 
But  capriciously  as  Nature  had  dealt  with  him,  the 
parent  to  whom  the  office  of  forming  his  character 
was  intrusted  was  more  capricious  still.  She  passed 
from  paroxysms  of  rage  to  paroxysms  of  tenderness. 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        177 

At  one  time  she  stiffled  him  with  her  caresses  ;  at 
another  time  she  insulted  his  deformity.  He  came  into 
the  world  ;  and  the  world  treated  him  as  his  mother 
had  treated  him,  —  sometimes  with  fondness,  some- 
times with  cruelty,  never  with  justice.  It  indulged 
him  without  discrimination,  and  punished  him  without 
discrimination.  He  was  truly  a  spoiled  child,  —  the 
spoiled  child  of  fortune,  the  spoiled  child  of  fame,  the 
spoiled  child  of  society."  The  author  of  "  Don  Juan  " 
was  actuated  at  times  by  a  strange  recklessness,  and 
a  desire  to  seem  worse  than  he  really  was.  He  aped 
the  misanthrope,  assumed  unfelt  remorse,  and  affected 
singularity,  in  order  to  court  notoriety.  However 
capricious  may  have  been  his  temper,  he  came  rightly 
enough  by  it,  since  his  mother  was  noted  for  the 
frenzied  violence  of  her  passion,  being  wholly  without 
judgment  or  self-control,  and  in  nearly  every  respect 
disqualified  for  performing  a  parent's  duty.^  Byron 
was  also  a  victim  of  hypochondria  only  in  a  less  de- 
gree than  Johnson  and  Cowley ;  and  this  is  his  one 
genuine  excuse  for  the  excesses  into  which  he  some- 
times rushed  headlong.     No  matter  in  what  light  we 

}  Speaking  of  Byron's  mother,  Dawson,  the  brilliant  English 
lecturer,  says  :  "  She  was  a  shrieking,  howling,  red-faced,  passion- 
ate, self-indulgent  person  ;  now  spoiling  him  by  ridiculous  indul- 
gence, now  subjecting  him  to  her  extravagant  wrath.  A  ridiculous 
person,  an  absurd  person,  short  and  fat.  What  a  sight  it  was  to 
see  her  m  a  rage,  running  round  the  room  after  the  lame  boy,  and 
he  mocking,  and  dodging,  and  hopping  about !  Although  that 
may  be  droll  to  hear,  it  was  tragical  to  suffer  from;  and  there  is 
much  mercy  to  be  bestowed  upon  a  man  whose  father  was  a  black- 
guard and  whose  mother  was  a  fool  I " 

12 


178        GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

consider  him,  all  must  concede  the  fervor  of  his  pas- 
sionate genius ;  and  therein  lay  his  remarkable  power, 
for  man  is  at  his  greatest  when  stimulated  by  the 
passions.  Enthusiasm  is  contagious,  and  infuses  a 
spirit  of  emulation ;  while  reason,  calm  and  forcible, 
only  wins  us  by  the  slow  process  of  conviction. 

The  truest  grandeur  of  our  nature  is  often  born  of 
sorrow.  Those  who  have  suffered  most  have  devel- 
oped the  profoundest  sympathies  and  have  sung  for 
us  the  sweetest  notes.  It  is  the  heart  which  is  seamed 
with  scars  that  compels  other  hearts.  Charles  Lamb, 
at  one  time  himself  confined  in  an  insane  asylum, 
lived  to  the  end  of  his  days  with,  and  in  charge  of,  an 
unfortunate  sister,  who  in  a  fit  of  madness  murdered 
her  mother,  —  an  experience  sufficient  to  cast,  as  it 
did,  an  awful  blight  over  his  whole  life ;  but  it  was 
the  occasion  in  him  of  an  instance  of  holy  human 
love  and  pure  self-denial  seldom  equalled.  Poor  Mary 
Lamb  ^  knew  when  these  mental  attacks  were  coming 
on,  and  then  her  brother  and  herself,  hand  in  hand, 
sought  the  asylum,  to  the  matron  of  which  he  would 
say,  "  I  have  brought  Mary  again  ; "  and  presently, 

1  We  quote  from  one  of  his  sister's  letters  to  a  confidential 
friend  :  "  Charles  is  very  busy  at  the  office ;  he  will  be  kept  there 
to-day  until  seven  or  eight  o'clock.  He  came  home  very  smoky 
and  drinky  last  night,  so  that  I  am  afraid  a  hard  day's  work  will 
not  agree  very  well  with  him.  I  have  been  eating  a  mutton-chop 
all  alone,  and  I  have  just  been  looking  into  the  pint  porter-pot, 
which  I  find  quite  empty,  and  yet  I  am  still  very  dry  ;  if  you 
were  with  me,  we  would  have  a  glass  of  brandy  and  water,  but  it 
is  quite  impossible  to  drink  brandy  and  water  by  one's  self."  Is 
not  this  a  quiet  peep  behind  the  curtain  1 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        179 

when  the  attack  had  passed,  he  was  at  the  door  of 
the  asylum  to  receive  her  once  more  and  take  her 
kindly  home.     The  domestic  tragedy  and  his  sister's 
condition  caused  Lamb  to  give  up  all  idea  of  mar- 
riage, though  at  the  time  of  the  sad  occurrence  he  was 
sincerely  attached  to   a  lovely  woman.     The  court, 
after  Mary's  trial,  consigned  her  to  her  brother's  care. 
He  wrote  to  his  friend  Coleridge,  "  I  am  wedded  to 
the  fortunes  of  my  sister  and  my  poor  old  father." 
The  father  died  not  long  subsequent,  but  Mary  sur- 
vived  Charles  thirteen  years,  dying  in  1847.     With 
considerable  ability  as  a  versifier,  Lamb  will  not  be 
remembered  as  a  poet  ;   his  fame  will   rest  on  his 
essays  and  his  sagacious  criticisms.     The  "  Essays  of 
Elia "  are  inimitable,  full  of  the  author's  personality, 
exquisitely  delicate,  poetical,  whimsical,  witty,  and 
odd.     The  only  fault  to  be   reasonably  found  with 
them  is  their  brevity.     We  wish  there  were  a  dozen 
volumes  in  place  of  one.     They  are  the  pedestal  upon 
which  the  fame  of  this  gentle,  charitable,  and  quaint 
genius  will  ever  rest.     Lamb's  character  was  amiably 
eccentric,  but  always  full   of  loving-kindness.     The 
pseudonym  of  "  Elia "  has  become  famous,  and  was 
first  assumed  in  the  author's  contributions  to  the  "  Lon- 
don Magazine."     While  his  lovable   disposition  and 
pensive   cast  of  thought   tinge  all   his   productions, 
there  is  ever  a  playfulness  lurking  just  below  the  sur- 
face which  is  sure  to  captivate  the  most  casual  reader. 
During  his  life  Lamb  was  looked  upon  by  the  world  as 
possessing  more  oddity  than  genius ;  but  now  all  join 


180         GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

in  admitting  him  to  be  one  of  the  fixed  stars  of  litera- 
ture.^ What  a  significant  fact  it  is  that  Lamb  was  so 
tenderly  regarded  by  the  galaxy  of  notable  men  with 
whom  he  associated  !  He  was  a  schoolmate  of  Cole- 
ridge and  intimate  with  him  for  fifty  years.  Southey, 
Hazlitt,  Wordsworth,  Godwin,  De  Quincey,  Edward 
Irving,  Thomas  Hood,  Leigh  Hunt,  and  other  men  of 
literary  fame  were  the  warm  and  loving  friends  of 
Charles  Lamb. 

With  all  his  aesthetic  proclivities,  "  Elia"  was  of 
a  sensuous  nature.  Besides  roast  pig,  he  had  other 
favored  dishes,  not  rare  and  luxurious,  but  special, 
nevertheless.  He  was  particularly  fond  of  brawn,  and 
considered  tripe  to  be  superlatively  appetizing  when 
suitably  prepared.  He  was  also  a  connoisseur  in  all 
sorts  of  drinks ;  not  that  he  was  extravagant, — on  the 
contrary,  he  was  to  a  degree  self-denying,  and  even 
with  all  his  little  generosities  and  his  care  of  his  sister 

1  It  was  singular  that  with  his  acute  sensibility  and  tenderness 
of  nature  Lamb  never  cared  for  music.  But  this  was  the  case 
with  Dr.  Johnson,  Fox,  Pitt,  and  Sir  James  Mackintosh.  John- 
son was  observed  by  a  friend  to  be  extremely  inattentive  at  a 
concert,  while  a  celebrated  solo  player  was  running  up  the  divisions 
and  subdivisions  of  notes  upon  the  violin.  The  friend  desiring  to 
induce  the  Doctor  to  give  his  attention,  remarked  how  difficult  the 
performance  was.  "  Difficult,  do  you  call  it,  sir  1 "  replied  John- 
son. "  I  wish  it  were  impossible."  It  will  also  be  remembered 
that  Goethe  was  not  particularly  fond  of  music.  Once  at  a  court 
concert  in  Weimar,  when  a  pianist  was  in  the  middle  of  a  very 
long  sonata,  the  poet  suddenly  rose  up,  and,  to  the  horror  of  the 
assembled  ladies  and  gentlemen,  exclaimed,  "  If  this  lasts  three 
minutes  longer,  I  shall  confess  everything ! " 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.       181 

Mary  he  managed  to  leave  two  thousand  pounds, 
saved  out  of  his  always  moderate  income,  to  make 
that  sister  comfortable.  He  wrote  to  Wordsworth: 
"  God  help  mc  !  I  am  a  Christian,  an  Englishman,  a 
Londoner,  a  Templar.  When  I  put  off  these  snug 
relations  and  go  to  the  world  to  come,  I  shall  be  like 
a  crow  on  the  sand."  Lamb  said  that  oftentimes 
absurd  images  forced  themselves  with  irresistible 
power  upon  his  mind, —  such,  for  instance,  as  an  ele- 
phant in  a  coach  office  gravely  waiting  to  have  his 
trunk  booked ;  or  a  mermaid  over  a  fish-kettle  cook- 
ing her  own  tail !  ^ 

Wordsworth  —  to  whom  we  have  already  alluded 
more  than  once  —  was  at  times  distressingly  poor, 
and  in  such  straitened  circumstances  that  he  and 
his  family  denied  themselves  meat  for  days  together. 
Had  it  not  been  for  the  admirable  influence  of  his 
sister  Dorothy,  who  cheered  his  spirits  and  counter- 
acted his  morbid  tendencies,  his  mind  might  have 
drifted  into  something  like  insanity.  His  disappoint- 
ment was  great  at  the  comparative  failure  of  his 
literary  work,  which  brought  him  little  in  the  way  of 
pecuniary  return  during  his  life.  A  fortunate  legacy 
and  comparatively  sinecure  office,  however,  finally 
afforded  him  humble  independence. 

It  seems  gratuitous  to  refer  to  the  natural  weakness 

^  Leigh  Hunt  tells  us  that  Lamb  was  under  the  middle  size, 
and  of  fragile  make,  but  with  a  head  as  fine  as  if  it  had  been 
carved  on  purpose.  He  had  a  very  weak  stomach.  Three  glasses 
of  wine  would  j)ut  him  in  as  lively  a  condition  as  can  be  wrought 
in  some  men  only  by  as  many  bottles. 


182        GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

of  SO  pure  and  good  a  man  as  Wordsworth,  but  we 
have  tried  to  be  impartial  in  these  pages.  Grand 
and  simple  as  our  poet  was,  he  had  the  element  of 
vanity  snugly  stowed  away  among  his  attributes,  yet 
ready  to  betray  itself  on  occasion.  It  is  related  that 
sometimes  when  he  met  a  little  child  he  would  stop 
and  ask  him  to  observe  his  face  carefully,  so  that  in 
after  years  the  child  might  be  able  to  say  he  had  seen 
the  great  Wordsworth.  "  Wordsworth,"  says  Charles 
Lamb,  "  one  day  told  me  that  he  considered  Shaks- 
peare  greatly  overrated.  '  There  is,'  said  he,  '  an 
immensity  of  trick  in  all  Shakspeare  wrote,  and 
people  are  taken  by  it.  Now,  if  I  had  a  mind,  I 
could  write  exactly  like  Shakspeare ! '  So  you  see," 
added  Lamb,  "  it  was  only  the  mind  that  was  want- 
ing ! "  The  late  James  T.  Fields,  who  was  a  hearty 
admirer  and  personal  friend  of  the  poet,  said,  "  Yes, 
Wordsworth  was  vain ;  but  think  for  a  moment  what 
he  has  produced,  and  how  much  he  had  in  him  to  be 
self-conscious  of ! " 

Golton,  better  known  by  his  nom  de  plume  of 
"  Lacon,"  is  a  vivid  illustration  of  the  eccentricities 
of  genius.  Though  he  was  a  man  whose  personal 
character  is  entirely  unworthy  of  our  respect,  yet  no 
one  can  deny  that  he  was  endowed  with  marked  and 
original  powers.  He  comes  before  us  in  our  day 
simply  as  the  author  of  his  remarkable  Laconics, 
full  of  spontaneous  thoughts  happily  expressed,  and 
which  will  compare  favorably  with  the  apothegms  of 
Bacon  or  the  terse  brevities  of  Rochefoucauld.     The 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.       183 

eccentricities  and  irregularities  of  Colton  are  almost 
too  extravagant  for  belief,  and  certainly  will  not  bear 
rehearsal.  At  one  and  the  same  time  a  clergyman  of 
fair  repute  and  the  secret  companion  of  sporting-men 
and  gamblers,  he  was  always  playing  a  double  part. 
He  was  the  author  of  several  important  pamphlets 
and  some  excellent  poetry,  and,  when  abroad,  the 
well-paid  correspondent  of  the  London  press.  Not- 
withstanding the  wit  and  consummate  wisdom  of  the 
volume  which  made  him  famous,  it  must  be  admitted 
that  he  was  incapable  of  appreciating  what  was  grand 
and  noble  in  principle.  Deeply  in  debt,  he  fled  to 
Paris  to  escape  the  importunities  of  his  creditors, 
where  he  became  a  confirmed  and  undisguised  gam- 
bler. Here  at  one  time  he  realized  such  an  extraordi- 
nary run  of  luck  as  to  break  a  famous  bank,  becoming 
the  possessor  of  nearly  thirty  thousand  pounds.  His 
experience  was  like  that  of  nearly  every  one  who  be- 
comes suddenly  rich  in  a  similar  manner.  He  lost 
every  penny  of  his  winnings  within  a  few  weeks,  and 
retired  to  Fontainebleau,  where  he  ended  his  life  by 
suicide.!  In  future  generations,  when  his  personal 
career  is  forgotten,  his  one  remarkable  literary  monu- 
ment will  still  remain,  like  the  column  of  Luxor, 
imperishable. 

^  In  his  volume  of  wise  sayings,  which  has  passed  through 
many  editions,  we  find  this  paragraph  :  "The  gamester,  if  he 
dies  a  martyr  to  his  profession,  is  doubly  ruined.  He  adds  his 
soul  to  every  other  loss,  and  by  the  act  of  suicide  renounces 
earth  to  forfeit  heaven !" 


184        GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

It  is  known  to  every  mathematician  tliat  the  regu- 
lar gambler  must  lose  in  the  end,  even  though  he  may 
"  break  the  bank  "  now  and  then.  Even  if  the  bank 
is  honestly  conducted,  all  the  chances  are  against 
him.  The  theory  of  probabilities  has  become  almost 
an  exact  science.  Arago,  —  the  famous  French  as- 
tronomer and  natural  philosopher,  —  when  consulted 
by  a  gentleman  who  was  infatuated  with  the  terrible 
vice  of  gambling,  told  him,  within  a  few  francs,  how 
much  he  had  lost  the  preceding  year.  "  But  I  must 
play,"  was  the  answer.  "It  is  true  that  I  find  my 
fortune  diminishing  every  year,  as  you  have  stated ; 
but  can  you  not  tell  me  how,  on  a  capital  of  five 
million  francs,  I  may  save  enough  to  give  me  a  de- 
cent burial  in  the  end  ? "  Arago,  after  learning  the 
gambler's  method  of  playing,  and  the  sum  he  risked, 
told  him  that  he  must  reduce  the  amount  of  his  daily 
ventures  to  a  certain  small  number  of  francs,  and 
that,  according  to  the  law  of  chances,  however  cool 
and  calm  his  playing,  he  would  lose  his  five  million 
francs  in  about  fifteen  years.  Every  body  of  stock- 
holders in  a  faro  bank  can  calculate  on  twenty  per  cent 
of  their  investment  being  returned  to  them  yearly. 

Could  genius  enjoy  the  advantage  of  being  judged 
by  its  peers,  it  would  stand  a  better  chance  for  con- 
temporary fame ;  but  overshadowed,  as  it  so  often  is, 
by  foibles,  waywardness,  and  those  passions  alike 
common  to  the  humble  and  the  exalted,  it  must 
pass  through  the  crucible  of  time  to  fit  it  for  sincere 
homage.     Robert   Burns,   whose   struggle   with    fate 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        185 

began  almost  beside  the  cradle,  and  whose  youth  was 
one  ceaseless  buffeting  with  misfortune,  is  an  ilhistra- 
tion  in  point.  His  productions  are  not  of  a  character 
to  set  aside  altogether  the  remembrance  of  his  follies, 
though  wc  are  all  inclined  to  treat  the  memory  of  the 
Scottish  bard  with  indulgence  and  half  reverence,  while 
we  hasten  to  acknowledge  his  great  and  unquestioned 
genius.  Burns  was  sadly  addicted  to  whiskey  and 
tobacco,  which  led  Byron,  as  we  have  already  said, 
to  call  him  "  a  strange  compound  of  dirt  and  deity." 
The  author  of  "  Childe  Harold "  forgot  the  proverb 
about  those  who  live  in  glass  houses.  Burns,  from 
early  youth,  was  subject  to  extraordinary  fits  of  dejec- 
tion, which  amounted  to  a  species  of  hypochondria, 
long  before  convivial  society  had  inoculated  him  with 
the  then  popular  vice  of  intemperance.  He  became 
finally  an  incongruous  mixture  of  mirth  and  melan- 
choly, while  poverty  with  its  attendant  ills  was  seldom 
from  his  door.  He  writes  to  a  friend  :  "  I  have  been 
for  some  time  pining  under  secret  wretchedness ;  the 
pang  of  disappointment,  the  sting  of  pride,  and  some 
wandering  stabs  of  remorse  settle  on  my  vitals  like 
vultures  when  my  attention  is  not  called  away  by  the 
claims  of  society  or  the  vagaries  of  the  Muse."  Poor, 
ill-fated  genius !  ^  By  his  follies  and  indulgences  he 
as  surely  committed  suicide  in  his  thirty-seventh  year 

^  When  the  last  scene  came,  those  who  had  neglected  him 
in  life,  at  least  paid  their  respects  to  his  remains ;  twelve 
thoiisand  people  followed  the  body  of  Robert  Burns  to  its  resting- 
place  in  the  grave. 


186        GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

as  did  the  starving,  lialf-delirious  Chatterton  on  his 
bed  of  straw. 

Mrs.  Dunlop,  an  early  patroness  of  Burns,  had  in 
her  family  an  old  and  favored  housekeeper,  who  did 
not  exactly  relish  her  mistress's  attention  to  a  man 
of  such  low  estate.  In  order  to  overcome  her  preju- 
dice, her  mistress  induced  the  domestic  to  read  one 
of  Burns's  poems,  the  "  Cotter's  Saturday  Night." 
When  Mrs.  Dunlop  inquired  her  opinion  of  the  poem, 
the  housekeeper  replied  with  quaint  indifference, 
"  Awecl,  madam,  that 's  vera  weel."  "  Is  that  all 
you  have  to  say  in  its  favor?"  asked  the  mistress. 
"  'Deed,  madam,"  she  replied, "  the  like  o'  you  quality 
may  see  a  vast  in  't ;  but  I  was  aye  used  the  like  o' 
all  that  the  poet  has  written  about  in  my  ain  father's 
house,  and  atweel  I  dinna  ken  how  he  could  hae 
described  it  any  other  gate."  When  Burns  heard 
of  the  old  woman's  criticism,  he  remarked  that  it 
was  one  of  the  highest  compliments  he  had  ever 
received. 

The  name  of  Thoreau  suggests  itself  in  this  connec- 
tion. He  lived  in  a  cabin  erected  by  himself  on  the 
borders  of  Walden  Pond,  a  voluntary  hermit,  frugal 
and  self-denying,  that  he  might  enjoy  a  studious  re- 
tirement. The  intimate  friend  of  Emerson  and  Haw- 
thorne must  have  had  fine  original  qualities  to  com- 
mend him.  Known  at  the  outset  only  as  an  oddity,  he 
grew  finally  to  be  respected  and  admired  for  his  quaint 
genius.  He  experienced  a  disappointment  in  love, 
which  doubtless  had  much  to  do  with  his  social  pecu- 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.       187 

liarities.^  In  business  and  the  affairs  of  every-day 
life  he  was  utterly  impracticable.  He  supported  him- 
self during  his  college  course  at  Cambridge  by  teach- 
ing school,  doing  carpentering,  and  other  work.  The 
restrictions  of  society  were  intolerable  to  him ;  he 
never  attended  church,  never  paid  a  tax,  and  never 
voted.  He  ate  no  flesh,  drank  no  wine,  never  used 
tobacco,  and  though  a  naturalist,  used  neither  trap 
nor  gun.  When  asked  at  dinner  what  dish  he  pre- 
ferred, he  answered,  "  The  nearest."  "  So  many  nega- 
tive superiorities  smack  somewhat  of  the  prig,"  says 
one  of  his  reviewers.  "  Time,"  says  Thoreau,  in  his 
fanciful  way,  "is  but  a  stream  I  go  fishing  in.  I 
drink  at  it,  but  while  I  drink  I  see  the  sandy  bottom 
and  detect  how  shallow  it  is.  Its  thin  current  slides 
away,  but  eternity  remains.  I  would  drink  deeper  — 
fish  in  the  sky,  whose  bottom  is  pebbly  with  stars." 
He  worshipped  Nature  in  all  her  forms,  and  depicted 
with  a  loving  and  exuberant  fancy  hills  and  water, 
with  the  myriad  life  which  peopled  them.  He  wrote 
several  books  which  are  read  to-day  with  more  of 
interest  than  when  the  author  was  alive. 

Genius  and  inspiration  are  so  nearly  allied  as  to 
leave  no  dividing  line,  and  the  sublimity  of  martyrdom 
is  often  added  to  the  column  of  fame.    Joan  of  Arc, 

^  We  find  these  two  verses  in  Thoreau's  published  journal : 

I.  II. 

Canst  thou  love  with  thy  mind,  Canst  thou  range  earth,  sea,  and  air, 

And  reason  with  thy  heart  ?  And  so  meet  me  everywhere  ? 

Canst  thou  be  kind,  Through  all  events  I  will  pursue  thee, 

And  from  thy  darling  part  ?  Through  all  persons  I  will  woo  thee. 


188         GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

the  most  illustrious  heroine  of  history,  was  born  a 
poor  peasant  girl  of  Lorraine ;  but  at  the  age  of  eighteen, 
impelled  by  an  exalted  enthusiasm,  she  commanded 
an  army  of  devoted  followers,  and  raising  the  siege  of 
Orleans  gave  to  Charles  VII.  a  crown.  At  the  age 
of  thirteen  she  said  she  received  commands  from 
Heaven  to  go  and  liberate  France ;  and  with  a  confi- 
dence of  Divine  support  she  pursued  her  mission.  No 
romancer  would  dare  to  imagine  or  portray  so  glorious  a 
heroine ;  fiction  could  not  equal  the  actual  deeds  that 
this  pure  and  lowly  girl  accomplished.^  That  she 
was  the  agent  of  Divine  Providence  to  bring  about  a 
great  political  object  goes  without  saying ;  yet  this 
maid  of  Domremy  was  burned  at  the  stake. 

Rachel,  the  child  of  poverty,  the  itinerant  of  the 
Parisian  boulevards,  infused  with  genius,  suddenly 
became  the  idol  of  courts  and  of  princes,  being  as 
devoutly  worshipped  by  the  lovers  of  art  on  the  banks 
of  the  Neva  and  the  Thames  as  on  the  shores  of  her 
beautiful  Seine.  How  strange  were  the  vicissitudes 
of  this  wonderful  artist,  this  frail  child  of  genius  !  An 
actress  of  transcendent  dramatic  power,  she  leaves  us 
the  souvenir  of  a  splendid  star  of  histrionic  art  extin- 
guished when  it  burned  the  brightest.  One  day,  when 
Rachel  was  thus  singing  and  reciting  on  the  public 

*  In  battle,  the  maiden  displayed  a  spirit  of  almost  reckless 
bravery,  leading  her  followers  into  the  thickest  of  the  fight. 
*'  She  was  benign,"  says  Michelet,  "  in  the  fiercest  conflict,  good 
among  the  bad,  gentle  even  in  war.  She  wept  after  the  vic- 
tories, and  relieved  with  her  own  hands  the  necessities  of  the 
wounded." 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        189 

street,  a  benevolent-looking  man,  with  pitying  eyes, 
was  attracted,  in  passing,  by  the  child's  intelligent 
look,  and  put  a  five-franc  piece  in  her  hand.  She  took 
the  silver  w^ith  a  grateful  courtesy  and  watched  him 
until  he  passed  out  of  sight.  A  citizen  who  had  seen 
the  generous  act  said,  "  That  was  Victor  Hugo ;"  and 
the  child-actress  remembered  the  name  ever  after. 
But  little  did  the  great  poet  anticipate  what  the  pale- 
faced  child  was  destined  to  become  in  that  world  of 
art  of  which  he  was  so  distinguished  a  disciple. 

Edwin  Forrest,  our  own  famous  tragedian,  was  in 
Paris  in  1836,  and  was  invited  by  the  manager  to  see 
an  actress  who  was  to  make  her  debut  at  one  of  the 
theatres  on  a  certain  evening.  The  manager  asked 
him,  in  the  course  of  the  performance,  what  he  thought 
of  the  debutante.  Forrest  replied  that  he  feared  she 
would  never  rise  above  mediocrity,  and  added,  "  But 
that  Jewish-looking  girl,  that  little  bag  of  bones,  with 
the  marble  face  and  the  flaming  eyes,  —  there  is  de- 
moniacal power  in  her.  If  she  lives  and  does  not  burn 
out  too  soon,  she  will  make  a  great  actress."  He 
referred  to  Rachel,  then  in  her  fifteenth  year.  We 
all  know  how  that  genius  developed.  Parsimony 
was  a  fixed  trait  of  her  character;  she  could  not 
help  it.  "  Is  it  any  wonder,"  she  once  said  to  a 
friend,  "  that  I  should  be  fond  of  money,  considering 
the  suffering  I  went  through  in  my  youth  to  earn  a 
few  sous  ? " 

It  appears  as  if  Nature  scattered  her  seeds  of  genius 
to  the  wind,  so  many  take  root  and  blossom  in  sterile 


190        GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

places,  and  also  that  she  delights  to  add  vigor  and 
glory  to  her  chance  productions.  Thus  Adelina  Patti, 
the  greatest  prima  donna  of  her  day,  was  once  a 
barefooted  child  in  the  streets  of  New  York.  Kings 
and  queens,  spellbound  by  her  glorious  voice,  have 
delighted  to  honor  her ;  but  her  domestic  life  was 
wrecked  at  the  moment  of  her  greatest  professional 
triumph.  Complete  success  is  granted  to  none.  Some 
bitterness  is  sure  to  tincture  our  cup  of  bliss,  for, 
after  all,  it  is  of  earth  and  not  of  heaven.  Perfection 
may  exist  with  angels  above,  but  not  among  mortals. 
The  life  of  genius  is  beset  with  extraordinary  tempta- 
tions ;  the  stimulating  spur  of  praise,  flattery,  and 
high  homage  should  be,  but  rarely  is,  counterbalanced 
by  the  curb  of  reason.  We  have  already  seen  that 
great  genius  and  true  domestic  happiness  are  seldom 
found  under  the  same  roof.  The  extraordinary  de- 
velopment of  certain  faculties  argues  diminution  in 
others ;  and  where  there  are  extremes,  it  is  ever 
difficult  to  harmonize  the  various  parts. 

Miss  Landon,  the  youthful  and  tender  poetess  and 
novelist,  known  to  the  world  by  her  familiar  signature 
"  L.  E.  L.,"  coined  the  treasures  of  her  brain  to  support 
those  who  were  dependent  upon  her.  In  one  of  her 
letters  she  says,  "  My  life,  since  the  age  of  fifteen 
years,  has  been  one  incessant  struggle  with  adversity." 
Her  productions  can  hardly  be  said  to  boar  the  stamp 
of  high  genius,  but  they  enjoyed  a  certain  popularity 
and  procured  the  much-needed  money.  The  mystery 
of  her  early  and  mournful  death  is  only  known  in 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.       191 

heaven.     She  died  from  a  dose  of  prussic  acid,  in  her 
thirty-sixth  year,  which  was  also  her  bridal  year.^ 

The  infinitely  sweet  and  touching  poems  of  Mrs. 
Hemans  were  the  outflow  of  a  heart  yearning  for 
human  affection  and  finding  it  not.  Her  domestic 
life  also  proved  to  be  a  marked  failure.  She  separated 
from  her  husband  after  six  years  of  married  life,  and 
never  saw  him  again.  Her  genius  was  early  devel- 
oped ;  her  poems  were  contributed  to  the  London 
press  at  the  age  of  fifteen.^  She  died  at  the  age  of 
forty-one,  worn  out  by  domestic  unhappiness  and  ill 
health.  She  has  herself  said,  "  There  is  strength 
deep-bedded  in  our  hearts,  of  which  we  reck  but  little 
till  the  shafts  of  heaven  have  pierced  its  frail  dwelling. 
Must  not  earth  be  rent  before  her  gems  are  found  ? " 
"  It  has  been  the  fashion  among  youthful  critics  of 
late,"  says  Epes  Sargent,  "  to  undervalue  her  produc- 
tions ;  but  not  a  few  of  these  have  a  charm,  a  tender- 
ness, and  a  spirit  which  must  make  them  long  dear 
to  the  hearts  of  the  many."  Her  complete  works, 
containing  a  tragedy  entitled,  "  The  Vespers  of  Pa- 
lermo," are  contained  in  six  volumes.     We  may  also 

1  Her  husband,  George  Maclean,  was  Governor  of  Cape  Coast 
Castle,  and,  as  is  well  known,  treated  her  with  marked  disrespect, 
even  going  so  far  as  to  introduce  a  favorite  mistress  into  the  castle. 
Some  envious  people  circulated  vile  reports  as  to  "  L.  E.  L.,"  but 
no  one  of  intelligence  ever  heeded  them. 

^  "  Her  gladness  Avas  like  a  burst  of  sunlight,"  says  one  of  her 
own  sex  who  knew  her  well  ;  "and  if  in  her  sadness  she  resembled 
the  night,  it  was  night  wearing  her  stars.  She  was  a  Muse,  a 
Grace,  a  variable  child,  a  dependent  woman,  the  Italy  of  human 
beings." 


192        GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

recall  the  sad,  sad  life  of  Charlotte  Brontd,  the  poor 
curate's  daughter,  whose  orphaned  childhood  was  so 
miserable,  and  whose  youth  was  drudgery  as  a  school- 
teacher at  sixteen  pounds  a  year.  Under  the  pressure 
of  extreme  ill  health  and  a  heart  nearly  broken  with 
sorrow,  this  daughter  of  genius  produced  "Jane 
Eyre,"  a  novel  of  such  power,  piquancy,  and  originality 
as  to  take  the  reading  world  by  storm.  She  was 
finally  married,  but  only  to  die  in  her  bridal  year. 
The  three  daughters  of  Rev.  Patrick  Brontd  were  each 
endowed  with  literary  genius,  which  under  happier  cir- 
cumstances might  have  developed  into  famous  results. 
Charlotte  wrote,  as  we  have  said,  "  Jane  Eyre ; " 
Emily  wrote  "  Wuthering  Heights,"  an  almost  equally 
popular  novel ;  and  Anne  wrote  the  "  Tenant  of 
Wildfell  Hall "  The  three  unitedly  published  in  1846 
"  Poems  by  Currer,  Ellis,  and  Acton  Bell,"  the  sis- 
ters' respective  pseudonyms.^  The  father's  income 
was  one  hundred  and  seventy  pounds  a  year,  upon 
which  to  support  a  family  of  twelve  persons.  He 
was  a  man  of  more  than  ordinary  culture  and  of 
mucli  poetic  talent.  A  volume  of  his  poems  was  pub- 
lished in  1811,  entitled  "  Cottage  Poems."  He  sur- 
vived his  whole  family.  Many  critics  have  pronounced 
"  Villette,"  published  by  Charlotte  a  couple  of  years 

1  Charlotte  married  her  father's  curate,  Mr.  Nicholls.  The 
other  two  sisters  died  young  and  unmanied.  "  The  bringing 
out  of  our  book  of  poems,"  writes  Charlotte,  "was  hard  work. 
As  was  to  be  expected,  neither  we  nor  our  poems  were  at  all 
wanted." 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.       193 

before  her  death,  to  be  superior  in  construction  and 
interest  to  "  Jane  Ejre." 

It  would  seem  that  deep  and  thoughtful  minds,  like 
deep  waters,  must  have  a  gloom  in  them,  and  that 
ideal  life  leads  to  turbulence  of  soul.  Nathaniel 
Hawthorne,  endowed  by  Nature  with  an  acute  and 
subtle  intellect,  always  suffered  more  or  less  from  a 
morbid  sensibility.  Even  in  his  youth,  like  Burns,  he 
was  oppressed  by  fits  of  deep  dejection,  which  gave 
his  friends  much  anxiety.  His  order  of  genius  was 
of  the  highest ;  of  that  there  is  no  doubt.  His  style  is 
simple,  graceful,  and  forcible,  with  a  power  to  awaken 
intense  interest  in  the  characters  which  he  delin- 
eated. The  "  Scarlet  Letter  "  is  perhaps  the  best 
known  and  most  popular  of  his  several  productions ; 
and  much  of  the  same  half-suppressed,  feverish  ex- 
citement is  realized  in  its  perusal  as  in  a  degree 
characterized  Hawthorne  himself.  His  most  promi- 
nent trait  as  an  author  lay  in  his  originality  and 
power  of  analysis.^ 

Insanity  is  often  the  result  of  an  overtasked  sen- 
sitive brain  wandering  in  the  realms  of  fancy.  Like 
a  high-mettled  horse,  it  sometimes  throws  the  rider, 
—  as  in  the  instance  of  Cowper,  Collins,  and  others 
already  spoken  of  in  these  pages.  Charles  Fenno 
Pluffman,  the  ripe  scholar,  poet,  and  novelist,  conceded 

^  Longfellow  was  a  classmate  of  Hawthorne  in  college,  and 
Franklin  Pierce  was  his  most  intimate  friend.  When  Pierce  was 
chosen  President,  he  at  once  appointed  our  author  to  the  Consul- 
ship at  Liverpool,  which  lucrative  office  he  held  for  four  years. 

13 


194        GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

to  be  one  of  the  best  song-writers  we  have  had  in 
America,  was  bereft  of  reason  and  died  the  inmate 
of  an  insane  asylum,  where  the  last  quarter  of  his 
life  was  passed.  "While  yet  a  boy,  Hoffman  met  with 
an  accident  so  serious  as  to  render  necessary  the  am- 
putation of  one  of  his  legs,  and  thenceforth  he  was 
obliged  to  go  with  a  wooden  one. 

B^ranger,  like  De  Foe,  was  at  one  period  the  prime 
favorite  of  the  Court,  and  presently  was  languisli- 
ing  within  the  dreary  walls  of  the  Bastile,  where  he 
wrote  some  of  his  most  effective  poems.  Contempo- 
rary with  B^ranger  was  Alfred  de  Musset,  a  poet  and 
litterateur  of  rare  excellence,  possessed  of  a  flow  of 
poetical  genius  characterized  by  passion,  vivacity,  and 
grace,  notwithstanding  that  a  morbid,  misanthropic 
frame  of  mind  consumed  him  in  secret.  His  youth- 
ful liaison  with  George  Sand  is  familiar  to  us  all,  and 
no  doubt  it  left  a  weird  influence  upon  his  life.  When 
De  Musset  received  money  he  would  squander  it  in 
the  most  reckless  dissipation,  then  live  on  bread  and 
onions  until  he  earned  another  supply,  to  be  lavished 
in  the  same  manner.  He  was  the  intimate  friend  of 
the  Duke  of  Orleans,  Victor  Hugo,  and  other  notable 
men,  but  deliberately  chose  the  debasing  career  of 
a  drunkard,  and  died  at  the  premature  age  of  forty- 
seven,  a  victim  to  the  demon  of  alcohol. 

The  grandmother  of  Alexandre  Dumas  the  elder 
was  an  African  negress.  He  enjoyed  no  educational 
advantages,  until  while  yet  a  mere  boy,  actuated  by  a 
Bohemian  spirit,  which  always  influenced  him  more 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.       195 

or  less,  he  wandered  away  from  his  native  place 
(Villers-Cotterets,  France),  and  sought  a  stranger's 
home  in  Paris.  Many  of  the  varied  productions  of 
this  prolific  and  sensual  novelist  bear  testimony  to 
his  African  origin,  in  their  savage  voluptuousness  and 
barbaric  taste.  Dumas  was  one  of  the  greatest  pla- 
giarists of  modern  times,  so  that  it  was  said  by  his 
critics  that  he  introduced  the  sweating  system  into 
literature.  But  no  intelligent  reader  can  deny  that 
he  was  a  great  genius,^  —  in  evidence  of  which  he 
possessed  the  thousand  and  one  conventional  charac- 
teristics of  the  race.  At  one  time  he  would  resort 
to  all  manner  of  expedients  to  dodge  his  creditors 
and  escape  arrest  for  debt,  at  another  scattering 
gold  with  the  most  lavish  and  inconsiderate  hand. 
Unlike  Lamartine,  he  failed  entirely  in  politics,  but 
certainly  was  for  years  the  most  popular  novelist  in 
France.  Dumas  was  frequently  in  the  receipt  of 
large  sums  in  gold  from  the  many  popular  books 
which  he  wrote.  When  this  money  was  received  it 
was  placed  in  a  pile  upon  the  table  of  his  sitting- 
room,  and  if  appealed  to  in  behalf  of  a  charity, 
or  asked  for  aid  by  an  impecunious  caller,  he  sent 
the  parties  to  help  themselves  as  long  as  the  pile  of 
napoleons  lasted !  Such  reckless  disregard  of  reason- 
able care  for  money  seems  almost  incredible  ;  but  this 

^  Thackeray  testifies  to  his  hearty  admiration  of  the  elder 
Dumas  in  these  words  :  "  I  think  of  the  prodigal  banquets  to 
which  this  Lucullus  of  a  man  has  invited  me,  with  thanks  and 
wonder." 


196         GENirS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

story  is  authenticated  by  his  son,  the  present  popular 
author  and  dramatist,  Alexandre  Dumas. 

The  life  of  Douglas  Jerrold  is  still  another  example 
of  the  mutability  of  fortune ;  at  first  call-boy  in  a 
theatre,  then  a  sailor,  and  finally  a  printer's  appren- 
tice, he  became  at  last  a  famous  dramatist,  essayist, 
wit,  and  humorist.  The  anecdote  of  his  first  contri- 
bution to  the  press  is  perhaps  not  too  familiar  to 
repeat.  He  was  a  youtliful  compositor  in  a  publishing 
ofl&ce,  where  he  ventured  to  drop  anonymously  into  the 
editor's  box  a  contribution  consisting  of  a  criticism  on 
"  Der  Freischiitz."  He  lay  awake  that  night  thinking 
of  his  venture,  and  the  next  morning  was  rendered 
half  frantic  with  joy  when  his  copy  was  handed  to 
him  to  be  put  into  type  by  his  own  hands.  Appended 
to  the  copy  the  editor  had  written  a  note,  asking  the 
anonymous  author  for  further  contributions.  Jerrold 
became  a  prominent  member  of  the  brilliant  coterie 
which  made  "  Punch,"  that  daring  wag,  a  great  moral 
and  political  power.  Many  of  his  best  sayings  — • 
flashes  of  wit  like  those  of  Wycherley,  Congreve,  and 
Sheridan  —  rarely  found  their  way  into  print,  being 
uttered  in  small  social  circles,  or  in  the  society  of 
the  London  clubs,  where  he  was  rather  feared  for 
the  keenness  of  his  satire,  as  he  was  no  respecter  of 
persons.  As  a  dramatist  Jerrold  is  best  known  by 
those  popular  plays,  "  The  Rent  Day "  and  "  Black- 
Eyed  Susan,"  1  the  latter  being  still  considered  the 

^  Jerrold  was  but  twenty-five  years  of  age  when  he  wrote  this 
the  first  of  his  dramas.     It  was  a  great  success  from  the  start,  and 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        197 

best  nautical  drama  on  the  stage.  Good-fellowship, 
as  it  is  falsely  called,  was  the  bane  of  Jerrold's  life ; 
and  though  he  realized  a  most  liberal  income,  he 
died  poor  and  grievously  in  debt.  During  the  last 
years  of  his  life  he  was  editor  of  "  Lloyd's  Weekly 
Newspaper,"  from  which  he  received  one  thousand 
pounds  per  annum,  besides  an  income  of  a  very  hand- 
some amount  for  other  and  various  literary  work. 

Charles  Dickens,  whose  early  career  was  not  with- 
out its  severe  discipline,  and  who  was  indisputably 
one  of  the  greatest  literary  geniuses  of  modern  times, 
certainly  shortened  his  life  by  free  living.  He  was 
extravagantly  fond  of  the  pleasures  of  the  table, 
and  a  constant  participant  in  convivial  occasions.^ 
Undoubtedly  his  domestic  infelicity  was  largely  at- 
tributable to  a  habit  of  overstimulating,  besides  which, 
brandy  and  continuous  literary  effort  are  incompatible 
with  each  other.  His  later  works  will  not  compare 
favorably  with  his  earlier  ones.  "  Our  Mutual  Friend  " 
was  not  worthy  of  his  reputation ;  and  the  half  of 
"  Edwin  Drood  "  which  was  published  was  not  of  a 
character  to  make  an  intelligent  reader  desire  more. 
At  fifty-eight  his  brain  was  failing.  Both  Dickens 
and  Thackeray  were  really  sacrificed  to  the  Moloch 
of  conviviality.  The  latter  was  not  only  a  remark- 
had  a  run  of  three  hundred  consecutive  nights,  though  the  author 
received  but  seventy  pounds  for  the  copyright. 

^  Sydney  Smith,  when  talking  of  the  bad  effect  of  late  hours, 
said  of  a  distinguished  diner-out,  that  it  should  be  written  on 
his  tomb,  "  He  dined  late,"  —  to  which  Luttrell  added,  "  And  died 
early." 


198         GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

able  novelist,  but  is  entitled  to  distinct  fame  as  a 
poet.  He  was  a  man  of  noble  impulses,  and  chari- 
table to  a  fault.  He  inherited  a  small  fortune,  in 
the  expenditure  of  which  he  was  very  lavish,  at  one 
time  giving  the  impecunious  Dr.  Maginn  five  hundred 
pounds, —  an  unfortunate  brother  author  who  appealed 
to  Thackeray  when  he  was  in  a  strait ;  and  no  needy 
man  was  ever  refused  by  the  author  of  "  Vanity  Fair." 
There  are  few  objects  which  if  held  up  against  a 
strong  light,  will  not  betray  some  defect.  A  perfect 
emerald  was  perhaps  never  seen,  and  almost  as  rare 
is  a  perfect  diamond ;  the  magnifying-glass  is  pretty 
sure  to  detect  some  flaw  in  the  gem,  be  it  never  so 
small.  So  the  microscope  applied  to  genius  is  apt  to 
discover  those  imperfections  of  humanity  from  which 
no  mortal  is  entirely  exempt.  Washington  said  it 
was  lamentable  that  great  characters  are  so  seldom 
without  blot.i  Edgar  A.  Poe,  whose  genius  has  so 
lately  received  public  recognition,  was  left  an  orphan 
at  a  tender  age,  thus  lacking  the  moral  influence  and 
training  which  might  have  prevented  the  blight  of  his 
after  years.  His  father  was  a  law-student,  and  his 
mother  an  actress  named  Elizabeth  Arnold.  Heaven 
had  breathed  into  his  soul  the  fire  of  a  master-spirit, 
but  at  the  same  time  endowed  him  with  a  morbid  sen- 

1  Some  one  told  Father  Taylor,  the  well-kno-wn  seamen's 
clergyman  of  Boston,  that  a  certain  individual  who  was  under 
discussion  was  a  very  good  citizen,  except  for  an  amiable  weak- 
ness. "  But  I  have  found,"  said  the  practical  old  preacher,  "  that 
weakness  of  character  is  nearly  the  only  defect  which  cannot  be 
remedied." 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.       199 

sitiveness  which  rendered  his  imagination  weird  and 
gloomy.  He  became  the  victim  of  strong  drink,  and 
was  thereby  marked  for  an  early  grave,  dying,  after 
an  erratic  career,  in  a  public  hospital.  He  was  an 
editor,  critic,  and  poet,  wielding  a  most  witty  but 
bitterly  sarcastic  pen.  When  penniless  and  in  abso- 
lute want,  he  wrote  to  a  friend,  with  a  supreme  con- 
tempt of  the  very  sinews  of  war  for  which  he  was 
suffering :  "  The  Romans  worshipped  their  standard, 
and  the  Roman  standard  happened  to  be  an  eagle. 
Our  standard  is  only  one  tenth  of  an  eagle,  one  dollar, 
but  we  make  all  even  by  adoring  it  with  tenfold  devo- 
tion." Even  in  boyhood  Poe  developed  a  wild,  unruly 
disposition,  being  expelled  from  the  University  of 
Virginia,  and  afterwards  from  the  "West  Point  Acad- 
emy. The  writer  of  these  pages  knew  Poe  personally, 
and  employed  him  as  a  regular  contributor  to  a  paper 
which  the  writer  was  editing.  Poe's  literary  reputa- 
tion rests  mainly  upon  one  remarkable  poem,  "  The 
Raven."  Mr.  Lowell's  portrait  of  the  author  of  "  The 
Raven  "  is  both  concise  and  true,  — "  three  fifths  of 
him  genius  and  two  fifths  sheer  fudge."  He  was  un- 
questionably a  man  of  genius,  but  wrong-headed  from 
very  childhood. 

"We  must  worship  our  literary  heroes  and  heroines 
from  afar :  indeed,  this  will  apply  with  force  to  all 
notables ;  intimacy  is  pretty  sure  to  disenchant  us. 
"  The  love  or  friendship  of  such  people,"  says  De 
Quincey,  "rather  contracts  itself  into  the  narrow 
circle  of  individuals.     You,  if  you  are  brilliant  like 


200         GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

themselves,  they  will  hate  ;  you,  if  you  are  dull,  they 
will  despise.  Gaze,  therefore,  on  the  splendor  of 
such  idols  as  a  passing  stranger.  Look  for  a  moment 
as  one  sharing  in  the  idolatry,  but  pass  on  before  the 
splendor  has  been  sullied  by  human  frailty."  Ad- 
miration is  the  offspring  of  ignorance  ;  even  where 
familiarity  does  not  breed  contempt,  it  blunts  the 
keenness  of  our  homage,  since  to  those  that  know 
them  best,  authors  quickly  come  down  from  their 
pedestals  and  become  only  men  and  women.  One  of 
Byron's  biographers  lays  it  down  as  a  rule  to  avoid 
writers  whose  works  amuse  you ;  for  when  you  see 
them  they  will  delight  you  no  more,  though  Shelley, 
he  admits,  was  an  exception.  Mr.  Emerson  thought 
the  conditions  of  literary  success  almost  destructive 
of  the  best  social  powers.  We  are  told  by  Lockhart 
that  Scott  could  not  endure,  in  London  or  Edinburgh, 
the  little  exclusive  circles  of  literary  society ;  he 
craved  the  company  of  men  of  business  and  affairs. 
"  It  is  much  better  to  read  authors  than  to  know 
them,"  says  Horace  Walpole.  Speaking  of  young 
Mr.  Burke,  he  says  (in  1761),  that  although  a 
remarkably  sensible  man,  "  he  has  not  worn  off  his 
authorship  yet,  and  thinks  there  is  nothing  so  charm- 
ing as  writers,  and  to  be  one.  He  will  know  better 
one  of  these  days."  Even  Byron  hated  authors  who 
were  all  author,  —  "  fellows  in  foolscap  uniform  turned 
up  with  ink."  Miss  Mitford,  in  the  ripeness  of  her 
experience,  wrote  that  authors  "  as  a  general  rule  are 
the  most  disappointing  people  in  the  world;"  much 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        201 

preferring  persons  who  loved  letters  to  those  who 
followed  the  profession  of  authorship.  Sir  Egerton 
Brydges,  the  prolific  writer  of  sonnets,  novels,  essays, 
letters,  etc.,  says :  "  I  have  observed  that  vulgar 
readers  almost  always  lose  their  veneration  for  the 
writings  of  the  genius  with  whom  they  have  had  per- 
sonal intercourse." 

We  have  spoken  several  times  of  the  remuneration 
realized  by  authors  for  their  literary  productions,  and 
perhaps  a  few  more  words  upon  this  subject  may  be 
of  interest  to  the  general  reader. 

In  the  reigns  of  William  III.,  Anne,  and  George  I., 
literature,  however  excellent,  could  not  find  a  suffi- 
cient market  to  fairly  requite  its  authors.  Intelligent, 
cultured  men  could  not  realize  remunerative  incomes 
by  their  pen ;  so  the  political  chiefs  of  those  days  came 
forward  and  extended  official  patronage  to  them  in 
a  manner  which  was  often  princely  and  munificent. 
Thus  Congreve,  scarcely  yet  twenty-one  years  of  age, 
was  given  a  place  under  Government  which  made 
him  independent  for  life.  Rowe,  poet  and  dramat- 
ist, author  of  "  Tamerlane,"  was  made  under-secretary 
of  state,  and  finally  became  poet-laureate,  in  1714. 
Hughes,  the  poet  and  dramatist,  also  held  a  lucrative 
Government  office  ;  he  was  the  author  of  the  "  Siege 
of  Damascus,"  a  drama,  singular  to  say,  which  was 
played  for  the  first  time  on  the  evening  of  his  death. 
Ambrose  Phillips,  an  author  of  similar  character, 
was  made  judge  of  the  prerogative  court  of  Ireland. 
Locke,  the  English  philosopher,  philanthropist,  and 


202         GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

voluminous  writer,  was  the  recipient  of  liberal  Govern- 
ment patronage.  Newton,  it  will  be  remembered,  was 
made  Master  of  the  Royal  Mint.  Stepney,  the  poet, 
of  whom  Dr.  Johnson  said,  "  He  is  a  very  licentious 
translator,  and  docs  not  recompense  the  neglect  of 
his  author  by  beauties  of  his  own,"  was  honored  by 
various  appointments,  as  also  was  Matthew  Prior,  of 
whom  the  same  critic  heartily  approved.  Gay  was 
made  Secretary  of  Legation  at  five-and-twenty,  —  he 
whom  we  have  seen  come  up  to  London  and  begin 
life  as  a  mercer's  clerk.  Montague  is  another  illus- 
trious example  of  those  geniuses  who  may  be  said  to 
have  enjoyed  at  least  a  degree  of  sunshine  as  well  as 
of  shadow.  His  poem  on  the  death  of  Charles  H.  led 
to  his  various  appointments  and  his  earldom.  Steele 
was  made  Commissioner  of  Stamps,  and  Swift  came 
very  near  being  made  a  bishop.^  Addison  was  ap- 
pointed Secretary  of  State,  and  Dr.  Johnson  was  the 
recipient  of  a  pension.  The  reader  can  easily  add 
instances  to  such  as  we  have  enumerated  as  those 
most  readily  presenting  themselves.  In  our  own  day 
excellence  in  literature  is  much  more  remunerative, 
and  in  a  legitimate  business  way.  Good  books  sell,  and 
authors  receive  fair  royalties  thereon ;  but  even  among 
us  instances  of  official  recognition  for  literary  merit 

^  The  prejudice  excited  in  Queen  Anne's  mind  by  the  Arch- 
bishop of  York,  on  account  of  the  alleged  infidelity  in  the  "  Tale 
of  a  Tub,"  is  supposed  to  be  the  reason  why  Swift's  aspirations 
were  not  granted  by  his  royal  mistress.  His  final  unsatisfactory 
appointment  as  Dean  of  St.  Patrick  was  awarded  to  him  instead 
of  the  coveted  bishopric. 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        203 

arc  not  "^anting.  Wc  recall  in  this  connection  Ban- 
croft the  historian,  as  Minister  to  Germany ;  Lowell 
the  scholar  and  poet,  Minister  to  the  Court  of  St. 
James.  Hawthorne,  Irving,  Everett,  Motley,  Bayard 
Taylor,  Howells,  and  others,  have  all  been  officially 
recognized  in  a  similar  manner. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

Egotism  in  eminent  characters  is  often  amusing  to 
us,  but  extremely  undignified  in  them.  It  is  almost 
always  the  betrayal  of  weakness,  —  the  tongue  of 
vanity.  He  who  talks  of  himself,  however  humble 
the  words,  exposes  a  proud  heart.  Still,  as  Emerson 
says,  "  there  are  dull  and  bright,  sacred  and  profane, 
coarse  and  fine  egotists."  Carlyle  was  an  egotist  of 
the  first  water,  and  so  were  many  other  famous 
authors.  Demosthenes  expressed  his  pleasure  when 
even  a  fishwoman  pointed  him  out  in  the  streets  of 
Athens.  Margaret  Fuller  once  wrote  :  "  I  have  now 
met  all  the  minds  of  this  country  worth  meeting,  and 
find  none  comparable  to  my  own  " !  The  admiration 
point  is  ours;  the  words  evince  most  insufferable 
vanity.  No  wonder  Emerson  complained  of  her 
"  mountainous  me,"  or  that  Lowell  called  the  whole 
of  her  being  a  "  capital  I."  Even  the  gentle,  unde- 
monstrative Hawthorne  was  obliged  to  denounce  her 
vanity  ;  and  yet  Margaret  was  a  woman  full  of  kindly 
human  instinct  and  of  remarkable  culture.  Dickens 
was  vain,i  egotistical,  and  selfish,  —  traits  which  grew 

^  The  author  remembers  him  well  on  the  occasion  of  his  first 
appearance  in  this  country  as  a  lecturer  and  public  reader.     His 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        205 

upon  him  as  he  advanced  in  years.  Thackeray,  in 
his  frank,  open  way,  acknowledged  his  delight  at 
being  recognized  by  street  gamins  as  the  author  of 
"  Vanity  Fair."  Hans  Andersen,  like  Dante,  confi- 
dently predicted  his  own  future  greatness.  Kepler  de- 
clared that  "  God  has  not  sent  in  six  thousand  years 
an  observer  like  myself."  Buffon's  vanity  was  pro- 
verbial and  ridiculous ;  and  yet  the  man  was  not 
ridiculous  according  to  Pope's  idea,  that  "  every  man 
has  just  so  much  vanity  as  he  lacks  understanding," 
for  we  all  know  that  Buffon  was  a  profound  naturalist 
and  scholar.  "  I  am  the  greatest  historian  that  ever 
lived,"  wrote  Gibbon  in  his  private  diary  ;  and  Goethe 
said,  "  All  I  have  had  to  do,  I  have  done  in  kingly 
fashion."  Albert  Diircr,  in  reviewing  his  own  work, 
wrote,  "  It  cannot  be  better  done."  Though  he  had 
in  his  day  many  admirers,  and  has  even  some  at  the 
present  time,  we  confess  that  his  pictures  have  no  at- 
traction for  us.  However,  he  has  unquestionable  merit 
as  an  engraver,  and  was  court  painter  to  Charles  V. 
Ruskin's  conceit  peeps  out  everywhere  in  his  writings. 
Nothing  could  be  more  egotistical  than  Disraeli's 
(Beaconsfield)  novels.  George  Sand  boastfully  betrays 
her  own  liaison  with  De  Musset  in  her  popular  story  of 
"  Elle  et  Lui."  "  I  shall  be  read,"  says  Southey,  "  by 
posterity,  if  I  am  not  read  now,  —  read  with  Milton, 
and  Virgil,  and  Dante,  when  poets  whose  works  are 

style  at  that  time  (which  was  afterwards  changed)  was  that  of  a 
modern  dude,  wearing  flash  waistcoats,  double  watch-chains,  gold 
eye-glasses  and  rings. 


206        GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

now  famous  will  only  be  known  through  a  biographical 
dictionary."  ^  Most  of  the  eminent  men  among  the 
ancients  were  superlatively  conceited  and  vain.  Plato 
quoted  tlie  oracle  which  pronounced  him  great ; 
Cassar  frequently  commends  himself,  and  so  does 
Cicero.  Pliny  puts  himself  on  record  as  one  of  this 
class  when  he  wrote  to  Venator :  "  The  longer  your 
letter  was,  so  much  the  more  agreeable  I  thought  it, 
especially  as  it  turned  entirely  upon  my  works.  I  am 
not  surprised  you  should  find  a  pleasure  in  them, 
since  I  know  you  have  the  same  affection  for  every 
composition  of  mine  as  you  have  for  the  author.'* 
"A  modern  instance"  occurs  to  us  here.  When  a 
certain  distinguished  lady  asked  Lord  Brougham,  the 
great  English  orator  and  author,  who  was  the  best 
debater  in  the  House  of  Lords,  his  lordship  modestly 
replied,  "  Lord  Stanley  is  the  second  best,  madam." 
That  some  people  who  despise  flatterers  do  not  hesi- 
tate to  flatter  themselves,  is  an  axiom  to  the  truth 
of  which  we  must  all  subscribe. 

In  contradistinction  to  these,  Whittier,  the  Quaker 
poet,  wrote  recently  to  a  correspondent  in  that  gentle, 
modest  manner  which  is  so  characteristic  of  every- 
thing relating  to  him :  "  I  have  never  thought  of 
myself  as  a  poet  in  the  sense  in  which  we  use  the 
word  when  we  speak  of  the  great  poets.  I  have  just 
said  from  time  to  time  the  things  I  had  to  say,  and 

^  No  father  or  mother  thinks  their  own  children  ugly  ;  and 
thif?  self-deceit  is  yet  stronger  with  respect  to  the  offspring  of  the 
mind.  —  Cervantes. 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.       207 

it  has  been  a  series  of  surprises  to  me  that  people 
should  pay  so  much  attention  to  them,  and  remember 
them  so  long."  Voltaire  betrayed  his  conceit  when 
he  attempted  to  criticise  Shakspeare.  Balzac  and 
Victor  Hugo  were  two  egotists.  "  There  are  only 
three  writers  of  the  French  language,"  said  Balzac, 
—  "Victor  Hugo,  Th<3ophile  Gautier,  and  myself." 
Southey,  Young,  Pope,  Dryden,  and  Wordsworth  be- 
trayed their  vanity  in  an  egregious  manner.  Gold- 
smith was  conspicuously  vain  at  times.  Landor  had 
a  supreme  estimate  of  his  own  productions,  and  wrote 
to  Wordsworth,  concerning  his  "  Imaginary  Conver- 
sations," as  follows :  "  In  two  thousand  years  there 
have  not  been  five  volumes  in  prose  equal  in  their 
contents  to  these."  ^  Voltaire's  remark  upon  Dante 
served  only  to  illustrate  his  own  spleen  and  jealousy. 
"  His  reputation,"  said  the  sarcastic  Frenchman,  "  will 
continually  be  growing  greater,  because  there  is  now 
nobody  who  reads  him,"  As  for  Voltaire's  tragedies, 
De  Tocqueville  said  he  could  not  even  read  them 
through,  and  he  doubted  if  anybody  else  could. 
Scott  said  he  read  the  "  Hcnriade "  through,  and 
lived,  but  it  was  when  he  was  a  young  man,  and  then 

1  No  one  can  anticipate  the  sufiFrages  of  posterity.  Every  man 
in  judging  of  himself  is  his  own  contemporary.  He  may  feel  the 
gale  of  popularity,  but  he  cannot  tell  how  long  it  will  last.  His  opin- 
ion of  himself  wants  distance,  wants  time,  wants  numbers,  to  set  off 
and  confirm  it.  He  must  be  indiflferent  to  his  own  merits  before  he 
can  feel  a  confidence  in  them.  Besides,  every  one  must  be  sensible 
of  a  thousand  weaknesses  and  deficiencies  in  himself,  whereas  genius 
only  leaves  behind  it  the  monuments  of  its  strength.  — Eazlitt. 


208        CEXIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

he  read  everything.  Dr.  Johnson  once  acknowledged 
that  he  never  read  Milton  through  until  he  was  obliged 
to  do  so  in  compiling  his  dictionary.  Southey  said 
he  had  read  Spenser  through  about  tJm-ty  times,  and 
that  he  could  not  read  Pope  once.  It  was  perhaps 
singular,  but  Southey,  Coleridge,  and  Wordsworth 
all  failed  to  appreciate  Yirgil. 

Hannah  More  tells  us  that  on  a  certain  occasion 
when  she  was  visiting  the  Garricks  in  1776,  David 
read  aloud  to  herself  and  Mrs.  Garrick  her  (Han- 
nah's) last  poem.  "  After  dinner  Garrick  read  '  Sir 
Eldrcd'  with  all  his  pathos  and  all  his  graces.  I 
think  I  was  never  so  ashamed  in  my  life ;  but  he  read 
it  so  superbly  that  I  cried  like  a  child.  Only  think 
what  a  ridiculous  thing  to  cry  at  the  reading  of  one's 
own  poetry."  In  another  place  she  says :  "  Whether 
my  writings  have  promoted  the  spiritual  welfare  of 
my  readers,  I  know  not ;  but  they  have  enabled  me 
to  do  good  by  private  charity  and  public  beneficence. 
I  am  almost  ashamed  to  say  that  they  have  brought 
me  thirty  thousand  pounds."  Burns  was  affected 
almost  to  tears  when  he  heard  for  the  first  time 
George  Lockhart,  of  Glasgow,  sing  his  verses.  "  I  '11 
be  hanged  if  I  knew  half  their  merit  until  now  !  "  he 
said.  James  Hogg,  the  "  Ettrick  Shepherd,"  wrote, 
"  I  cannot  express  what  my  feelings  were  at  first 
hearing  a  song  of  mine  sung  by  a  beautiful  young 
lady  in  Ettrick  to  her  harpsichord."  One  recalls  in 
this  connection  the  legend  told  in  Eome  of  Canova's 
disguising  himself  and  mingling  with  the  crowd  of 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        209 

citizens  that  he  might  hear  their  comments  upon  a 
newly  unveiled   statue    just  completed   by  his   own 
hands,  and  of  the  great  satisfaction  he  bore   away 
with  him   at  their   commendations.     Thomas  Hood 
could  not  suppress  his  pleasure  at  listening  to  the 
"  Song  of  the  Shirt "  ^  as  sung  by  the  poor  sorrowing 
work-people  in  the  London  streets,  adapted  to  rude 
airs  of  their  own  composition.     Beranger,  the  song- 
writer of  France,  acknowledged  a  similar  delight  in 
hearing  his  verses  sung  upon  the  Parisian  boulevards 
by   the   common   people.     Francis   Jacox   speaks   of 
the  first  visit  of  the  old  poet  Ducis  to  his  beloved 
master,  Louis  XYIIL,  when  that  monarch  graciously 
recited  to  him  some  of  his  own  verses.     In  an  ecstasy 
of  delight  Ducis  exclaimed :  "  I  am  more  fortunate 
than  Boileau  or  Racine  ;  they  recited  their  verses  to 
Louis  XIV.,  but  my  king  recites  my  verses  to  me  !  " 

Though  people  arc  said  to  be  vainer  of  qualities 
which  they  fondly  believe  they  have  than  of  those 
which  they  do  really  possess,  still  we  must  allow  to 
genius  some  latitude  in  the  matter  of  conceit,  since 
common  people  exhibit  so  much  of  that  spirit  on  no 
capital  at  all.  Dr.  Holmes  says  of  conceit,  that  "  it 
is  to  character  what  salt  is  to  tlie  ocean,  —  it  keeps  it 
sweet  and  renders  it  endurable."  Perhaps  the  acme 
of  conceit  is  reached  when  Cicero  says,  "  For  all  my 

1  The  "  Song  of  the  Shirt "  first  appeared  in  "  Punch,"  in  1844  ; 
and  was  Hood's  favorite  piece  of  all  his  published  compositions, 
though  the  "  Bridge  of  Sighs  "  was  perhaps  more  popular  with 
the  public.     Hood  died  in  1845,  at  the  age  of  forty-seven. 

14 


210        GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

toils  and  pains  I  have  no  recompense  here ;  but  here- 
after, in  heaven,  among  the  immortal  gods,  I  shall  look 
back  on  my  beloved  city,  and  find  my  reward  in  seeing 
her  made  glorious  by  my  career."  Horace,  referring 
to  his  future  fame,  says,  "  I  shall  not  wholly  die." 

Vanity,  says  Shakspeare,  keeps  persons  in  favor 
with  themselves  who  are  out  of  favor  with  all  others. 
He  was  not  himself  wdthout  a  portion  of  that  con- 
ceit which  he  says  "  in  weakest  bodies  strongest 
works ; "  but  there  is  this  difference  in  his  share  of 
vanity, — he  had,  indeed,  a  genius  the  gods  themselves 
might  envy.     He  begins  one  of  his  sonnets,  — 

"  Not  marble,  nor  the  gilded  monuments 
Of  princes,  shaU.  outlive  tMs  powerful  rhyme." 

And  again  he  says  :  — 

"  Your  monument  shall  be  my  gentle  verse, 
"Which  eyes  not  yet  created  shall  o'er-read, 
And  tongues  to  be  your  being  shall  rehearse 
When  all  the  breathers  of  this  world  are  dead  ; 
You  still  shall  live  —  such  virtue  hath  my  pen  — 
"Where  breath  most  breathes,  even  in  the  mouths  of  men." 

Sydney  Smith's  definition  occurs  to  us  here,  wherein 
he  defines  vanity  as  "  proceeding  from  the  supposi- 
tion of  possessing  something  better  than  the  rest  of 
the  world  possesses.  Nobody  is  vain  of  possessing 
two  legs  and  two  arms,  because  that  is  the  precise 
quantity  of  either  sort  of  limb  which  everybody  pos- 
sesses." Fielding  bluntly  tells  the  truth  when  he 
says,  "  There  is  scarcely  any  man,  however  much 
he  may  despise  the  character  of  a  flatterer,  but  will 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.       211 

condescend,  in  the  meanest  manner,  to  flatter  him- 
self." We  have  seen  that  even  Diogenes  was  grati- 
fied by  popular  praise,  not  to  say  flattered  thereby ; 
while  the  fact  of  his  occupying  so  notable  and  pecu- 
liar an  abode  argued  a  degree  of  pride  and  vanity. 
Did  not  Thoreau  also  affect  humility  in  his  rudely 
built  cabin  on  the  borders  of  Walden  Pond?  Cer- 
tainly the  idea  of  Diogenes  and  his  tub  must  have 
occurred  to  so  classic  a  scholar  as  the  Concord  hermit. 
Southcy's  appeal  to  posterity  to  do  him  justice,  in  his 
letter  to  his  publisher,  will  be  remembered  :  "  My  day 
and  popularity  will  come  when  I  shall  have  said  good- 
night to  the  world."  De  Quincey  remarks  that  pos- 
terity is  very  hard  to  get  at ;  and  Swift  thought  the 
present  age  altogether  too  free  in  laying  taxes  on  the 
next.  "  Future  ages  shall  talk  of  this  ;  they  shall  be 
famous  to  all  posterity ; "  whereas  their  time  and 
thoughts,  he  believed,  would  be  taken  up  with  present 
things,  as  ours  are  now.  Carlyle  thought  Dr.  Johnson's 
carelessness  as  to  future  fame  a  very  remarkable  trait 
in  his  character. 

The  vanity  of  authors  is  their  shame,  and  ought 
to  be  their  secret.  While  it  does  not  necessarily  de- 
tract from  the  merit  of  their  excellent  productions,' 
it  prejudices  all  by  belittling  them  in  our  estimation. 
Oftentimes  the  career  of  these  notables,  as  we  have 
seen,  has  been  one  of  surmounted  difficulties  and 
hardships  endured  for  the  sake  of  their  chosen  calling, 
embittering  their  nature,  perhaps,  yet  at  the  same  time 
tincturing  them  with  an  exultant  spirit  of  success. 


212         GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

There  are  examples  in  abundance,  however,  of  an 
opposite  character  —  examples  of  true  modesty  and 
self-forgetfulness  —  among  poets  and  authors  gener- 
ally. The  poet  Rogers,  as  well  as  Whittier,  is  a  happy 
example  of  an  equable  life  with  a  full  share  of  reason- 
able blessings.  Referring  to  his  irreproachable  career, 
Sheridan  told  Rogers  it  was  easy  for  happy  people  to 
be  good. 

"  How  noiseless  falls  the  foot  of  time 
That  only  treads  on  flowers  !  " 

says  William  Robert  Spencer.  A  modest  estimate  of 
self  sits  gracefully  upon  genius.  Listen  to  Newton  : 
"  I  do  not  know  what  I  may  appear  to  the  world,  but 
to  myself  I  seem  to  have  been  only  like  a  boy  playing 
on  the  sea-shore,  and  diverting  myself  in  now  and 
then  finding  a  smoother  pebble  or  a  prettier  shell  than 
ordinary,  while  the  great  ocean  of  truth  lay  all  undis- 
covered before  me."  Scott  was  very  little  tainted 
with  vanity;  indeed,  he  wrote  in  his  diary  that  no 
one  disliked  or  despised  the  "  pap  "  of  praise  so  heart- 
ily as  he  did.  He  said  there  was  nothing  he  scorned 
more,  except  those  persons  who  seem  to  praise  one  in 
order  to  be  puffed  in  return.  As  a  rule,  he  did  not 
entertain  a  very  high  opinion  of  literary  people,  or,  as 
we  have  seen,  desire  to  associate  with  them.  He  said  : 
"  If  I  encounter  men  of  the  world,  men  of  business, 
odd  or  striking  characters  of  professional  excellence 
in  any  department,  I  am  in  my  element,  for  they  can- 
not lionize  me  without  my  returning  the  compliment 
and  learning  something  of  them." 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        213 

Some  people  think  praise  so  pleasant  and  agreeable 
that  they  cannot  have  too  much  of  it.  Goldsmith 
said  Garrick  was  a  mere  glutton  of  praise,  who  swal- 
lowed all  he  came  across  and  mistook  it  for  renown,  — 
the  fluffy  of  dunces.  Not  actors  alone,  but  writers  also, 
are  endowed  with  a  very  ravenous  appetite  for  the 
same  sort  of  nutriment.  There  is  a  nest  of  vanity  in 
almost  every  breast,  and  according  to  Burke  it  is 
omnivorous.  Rochefoucauld  declared  that  men  had 
little  to  say  when  not  prompted  by  vanity. 

Another  example  of  unbounded  self-conceit  occurs 
to  us  in  the  instance  of  the  French  poet  and  dramatist 
Scud^ri,  the  prot^g^  of  Cardinal  Richelieu.  His 
genius  was  not  to  be  doubted,  but  it  was  deeply  shad- 
owed by  his  vanity,  as  made  manifest  in  the  preface 
to  his  literary  works,  which  abounds  in  gasconade 
pure  and  simple.  Of  his  epic  poem  "  Alaric  "  he 
says :  "  I  have  such  a  facility  in  writing  verses,  and 
also  in  my  invention,  that  a  poem  of  double  its  length 
would  have  cost  me  but  little  trouble.  Although  it 
contains  only  eleven  thousand  lines,  I  believe  that 
longer  epics  do  not  exhibit  more  embellishment  than 
mine."  Poor,  self-satisfied  Scud^ri !  both  he  and  his 
works  are  very  nearly  forgotten,  though  he  was  an 
honored  member  of  the  French   Academy.^     John 

1  His  sister,  Mile,  de  Scuderi,  is  better  known  to  us  in  litera- 
ture than  himself.  She  was  a  distinguished  member  of  the 
society  which  met  at  the  Hotel  de  Rambouillet,  and  which  has 
been  made  si  famous  by  Moliere  in  his  "Precieuses  ridicules." 
She  survived  her  brother  some  years. 


214         GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

Heyward,  poet  and  jester,  a  court  favorite  in  the  days 
of  Queen  Mary,  is  another  example  of  consummate 
vanity.  He  was  among  the  earliest  who  wrote  Eng- 
lish plays.  In  a  work  which  he  produced,  in  1556, 
called  "  The  Spider  and  the  Fly,"  a  parable  there 
are  seventy-seven  chapters,  and  at  the  beginning  of 
each  is  a  portrait  of  the  author  in  various  attitudes, 
either  sitting  or  standing  by  a  window  hung  with 
cobwebs.  Dryden  honestly  declared  tliat  it  was  bet- 
ter for  him  to  own  his  failing  of  vanity  than  for  the 
world  to  do  it  for  him ;  and  adds  :  "  For  what  other 
reason  have  I  spent  my  life  in  so  unprofitable  a 
study  ?  Why  am  I  grown  old  in  seeking  so  un- 
profitable a  reward  as  fame  ?  The  same  parts  and 
application  which  have  made  me  a  poet  might  have 
raised  me  to  any  honors  of  the  gown."  Sometimes 
Goethe  speaks  with  the  true  breath  of  humility,  and 
sometimes  quite  the  reverse.  He  says,  "  Had  I 
earlier  known  how  many  excellent  things  have  been 
in  existence  for  hundreds  and  thousands  of  years,  I 
should  have  written  no  line ;  I  should  have  had  enough 
else  to  do."  And  yet  Goethe  is  not  only  the  most 
illustrious  name  in  German  literature,  but  one  of  the 
greatest  poets  of  any  age  or  nation. 

Eugene  Sue,i  who  was  born   in  luxury,  and  who 

^  Sue  studied  medicine  at  first,  and  was  with  the  French  army 
in  Spain  (1823)  as  military  surgeon.  After  inheriting  his  father's 
fortune,  he  studied  painting,  but  renounced  that  art  finally  to 
engage  in  literature.  His  romances  were  for  a  time  as  popular  as 
those  of  Dumas,  and  in  their  character  as  immoral  as  those  of 
Paul  de  Kock. 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        215 

need  never  have  written  for  support,  would  sit  down 
to  write  only  in  full  dress,  even  wearing,  as  we  have 
seen,  kid  gloves,  —  an  evidence  of  vanity  which  has 
a  precedent  in  Buffon,  who  when  found  engaged  in 
literary  work  was  always  curled,  powdered,  ruffled, 
and  perfumed.  N.  P.  Willis  was  as  dainty  in  his 
dress  as  in  his  style  of  writing ;  and  Emerson's  remark 
relative  to  Nature  would  well  apply  to  him,  when  he 
says,  "  She  is  never  found  in  undress."  Ruskin,  who 
lives  in  a  glass  house  as  it  regards  the  matter  of  self- 
esteem,  charges  Goethe  with  self-complacency,  and  at 
the  same  time  adds  that  this  quality  marks  a  second- 
rate  character.  The  reader  will  not  be  long  in  deter- 
mining which  of  the  two  was  the  more  amenable  to 
such  criticism.  Before  we  dismiss  Mr.  Ruskin  let  us 
quote  a  letter  of  his  published  not  long  since,  and 
written  so  late  as  1881,  addressed  to  Alexander  Mitch- 
ell. "  What  in  the  devil's  name,"  he  writes,  "  have 
you  to  do  with  either  Mr.  Disraeli  or  Mr.  Gladstone  ? 
You  are  a  student  at  the  university,  and  have  no  more 
business  with  politics  than  you  have  with  rat-catching. 
Had  you  ever  read  ten  words  of  mine  with  understand- 
ing, you  would  have  known  that  I  care  no  more  for 
Mr.  Disraeli  or  Mr.  Gladstone  than  for  two  old  bag- 
pipes with  their  drones  going  by  steam;  but  that  I 
hate  all  Liberalism  as  I  do  Beelzebub,  and  that,  with 
Carlyle,  I  stand  —  we  two  alone  now  in  England  — 
for  God  and  the  Queen !  "  So  much  for  the  vanity 
and  conceit  of  Mr.  John  Ruskin. 
Pope  never  saw  the  inside  of  a  university,  or  indeed 


216        GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

of  a  school  worthy  of  the  name.  Two  Romish  priests 
attempted  at  different  times  to  do  something  for  him 
as  personal  tutors, but  with  little  success.  "This  was 
all  the  teaching  I  had,"  he  says,  "and  God  knows  it 
extended  a  very  little  way."  And  yet  at  the  age  of 
sixteen  he  thought  himself,  as  he  has  recorded, "  to  be 
the  greatest  genius  that  ever  was ; "  and  we  are  afraid 
that  this  vanity  and  self-conceit  never  quite  deserted 
him.  Atterbury  compared  him  to  Homer  in  a  nut- 
shell. Dr.  Johnson  pronounces  Pope's  Iliad  to  be  "  the 
noblest  version  of  poetry  which  the  world  has  ever 
seen  ;  and  its  publication  must  therefore  be  considered 
as  one  of  the  great  events  in  the  annals  of  learning." 
As  soon  as  Pope  was  pecuniarily  able  he  made  him- 
self a  comfortable  home,  and  brought  his  aged  parents 
into  it  and  made  them  happy.  He  calls  his  existence 
«'  a  long  disease; "  but  if  he  was  "  sent  into  this  breath- 
ing world  but  half  made  up,"  Nature  compensated  him 
by  the  richness  with  which  she  endowed  his  brain. 
"  In  the  streets  he  was  an  object  of  pity,"  says  Tuck- 
erman  ;  "  at  his  desk,  a  king."  Though  his  life  was 
embittered  in  a  measure  by  his  physical  deformity  and 
by  ill-health,  he  was  not  lacking  in  the  tenderness  of 
heart  which  forms  the  key-note  to  all  domestic  happi- 
ness. "  I  never  in  my  life  knew,"  says  Bolingbroke, 
"  a  man  who  had  so  tender  a  heart  for  his  particular 
friends,  or  a  more  general  friendship  for  mankind." 
As  to  his  poetry  there  has  always  been  a  great  diver- 
sity of  opinion,  but  we  think  it  reached  the  height  of 
art.     It  is  therefore  difficult  to  realize  the  egotism 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        217 

which   could  prompt  the  following  couplet  from  his 
pen  in  the  ripeness  of  his  fame  :  — 

*'  I  own  I  'm  proud,  —  I  must  be  proud,  to  see 
Men  not  afraid  of  God  afraid  of  me." 

Colley  Gibber  was  a  sharp  thorn  in  Pope's  side  ;  he 
was  a  witty  actor,  as  well  as  clever  dramatist  and 
mediocre  poet.  He  was  chosen  poet-laureate  in  1730. 
His  most  popular  comedy  was  "  Love's  Last  Shift,  or 
the  Fool  in  Fashion,"  though  it  divided  the  honors 
with  the  "  Careless  Husband,"  in  which  Gibber  him- 
self enacted  the  principal  role.  Dr.  Johnson  disliked 
him  because,  "  though  he  was  not  a  blockhead,  he 
was  pert,  petulant,  and  presumptuous."  On  the  stage 
he  excelled  in  almost  the  whole  range  of  light,  fantas- 
tic, comic  characters ;  but  in  poetry,  which  he  much 
affected,  his  lyrics  were  all  so  bad  that  his  friends 
pretended  he  made  them  so  on  purpose,  and  fully 
justified  Johnson's  remark  that  they  were  "  truly  in- 
comparable." He  was  the  recipient  of  a  pension  of 
two  hundred  pounds  from  George  I. 

There  is  a  vein  of  vanity  in  most  of  us  :  few  authors 
or  artists  are  without  a  share  ;  and,  singular  to  say,  it 
most  frequently  arises  from  trivial  matters  in  which 
there  would  seem  to  be  the  least  cause  for  pride. 
William  Mitford,  the  author  of  the  "History  of 
Greece,"  a  scholarly  and  admirable  piece  of  literary 
work,  was  most  proud  of  his  election  to  a  captaincy 
in  the  Southampton  militia.  To  be  sure,  his  lit- 
erary work  challenged  some  severe  criticism  ;  De 


218         GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

Quincey  said  of  it,  "  It  is  as  nearly  perfect  in  its 
injustice  as  human  infirmity  will  allow."  Carlyle 
certainly  magnified  bis  own  calling  when  he  wrote : 
"  0  thou  who  art  able  to  write  a  book,  which  once 
in  the  two  centuries  or  oftener  there  is  a  man  gifted 
to  do,  envy  not  him  whom  they  name  conqueror  or 
city-builder,  and  inexpressibly  pity  him  whom  they 
name  conqueror  or  city-burner."  Great  as  he  was 
in  authorship,  Macaulay  in  one  of  his  letters  remarks, 
"I  never  read  again  the  most  popular  passages  of 
my  own  works  without  painfully  feeling  how  far  my 
execution  has  fallen  short  of  the  standard  which  is 
in  my  mind."  He  is  undoubtedly  one  of  the  noblest 
characters  in  English  literature,  and  his  mortal  re- 
mains very  properly  rest  in  the  Poets'  Corner  of 
Westminster  Abbey,  —  a  favorite  resort  of  the  great 
historian  during  his  life.  As  an  example  of  modest 
merit  we  recall  the  name  of  Robert  Boyle,  the  Irish 
chemist  and  linguist,  the  great  experimental  phi- 
losopher of  the  seventeenth  century,  —  he  whom  some 
wit  called  "  the  father  of  chemistry  and  the  brother 
of  the  Earl  of  Cork."  He  translated  the  Gospels  into 
the  Malay  language,  and  published  the  translation  at 
his  own  expense  ;  he  was  besides  a  thorough  Hebrew 
and  Greek  scholar.  His  many  published  works  are 
all  profound  and  useful.  He  was  chosen  President  of 
the  Royal  Soceity,  but  refused  the  honor,  from  an 
humble  estimate  of  his  own  merit,  and  for  the  same 
reason  declined  a  peerage  which  was  tendered  to  him. 
We  owe  to  him,  according  to  Boerhaave,  "  the  secrets 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.       219 

of  fire,  air,  water,  animals,  plants,  and  fossils."    Bojle 
cared  nothing  for  fame. 

In  realizing  that  genius  is  apt  among  its  other 
foibles  to  be  over  self-conscious,  we  should  be  careful 
not  to  confound  conceit  with  vanity,  to  which  it  is  so 
nearly  allied.  The  latter  makes  one  sensitive  to  the 
opinions  of  others,  while  the  former  renders  us  self- 
satisfied.  Few  have  possessed  either  genius  or  per- 
sonal beauty  without  being  conscious  of  it;  though 
Hazlitt  declares  that  no  great  man  ever  thought  him- 
self great, — an  assertion  which  the  reader  will  hardly 
be  prepared  to  indorse.  A  famous  American  philoso- 
pher was  persuaded  that  vanity  was  often  the  source 
of  good  to  the  possessor,  and  that  among  other  com- 
forts of  life,  one  might  consistently  thank  God  for 
his  vanity.  Still,  when  evinced  in  social  intercourse 
nothing  is  more  derogatory  to  dignity ;  one  becomes 
not  only  his  own,  but  everybody's  fool.  "  Vanity  is 
so  anchored  in  the  heart  of  man,"  says  Pascal,  "  that 
a  soldier,  sutler,  cook,  and  street  porter  vapor  and  wish 
to  have  their  admirers;  and  philosophers  even  wish 
the  same." 

Concerning  localities  rendered  of  special  interest 
by  association,  Leigh  Hunt  said :  "  I  can  no  more 
pass  through  Westminster  without  thinking  of  Mil- 
ton, or  the  Borough  without  thinking  of  Chaucer 
and  Shakspeare,  or  Gray's  Inn  without  calling  Bacon 
to  mind,  or  Bloomsbury  Square  without  Steele  and 
Akenside,  than  I  can  prefer  bricks  and  mortar  to 
wit  and  poetry,  or  not  see  a  beauty  upon  it  beyond 


220         GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

architecture,  in  the  splendor  of  the  recollection.  I 
once  had  duties  to  perform  which  kept  me  out  late 
at  night,  and  severely  taxed  my  health  and  spirits. 
My  path  lay  through  a  neighborhood  in  which  Dryden 
lived ;  and  though  nothing  could  be  more  common- 
place, and  I  used  to  be  tired  to  the  heart  and  soul  of 
me,  I  never  hesitated  to  go  a  little  out  of  the  way, 
purely  that  I  might  pass  through  Gold  Street,  to  give 
myself  the  shadow  of  a  pleasant  thought."  Gibbon 
was  twenty-three  years  in  preparing  the  material  for 
and  in  writing  his  "  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman 
Empire ; "  that  is  to  say,  he  began  it  in  1764,  and  did 
not  finish  it  until  1787.  He  says  as  he  "  sat  musing 
amidst  the  ruins  of  the  capital,  while  the  barefooted 
friars  were  singing  vespers  in  the  temple  of  Jupiter, 
the  idea  of  writing  the  decline  and  fall  of  the  city  first 
occurred  to  his  mind."  The  writer  of  these  pages  has 
visited  the  garden  and  summer-house  at  Lausanne, 
overlooking  Lake  Leman,  where  Gibbon  completed 
his  work,  and  where  he  laid  down  his  pen  in  triumph 
almost  exactly  a  century  since. 

James  Watt  has  localized,  a  spot  of  interest  in  con- 
nection with  himself  at  Glasgow,  where  first  flashed 
upon  him  the  idea  which  resulted  in  the  improvement 
of  the  steam-engine.  Leibnitz  recalls  the  grove  near 
Leipsic  where  in  his  youth  he  first  began  to  meditate 
and  create.  So  Burns  had  his  favorite  walk  at  Dum- 
fries, secluded,  and  commanding  a  view  of  the  distant 
hills,  where  he  composed,  as  was  his  wont,  in  the  open 
air.     He  says  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Thomson,  August, 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.       221 

1793, "  Autumn  is  my  propitious  season.  I  make  more 
verses  in  it  than  all  the  year  else."  Luther  tells  us 
of  the  spot,  and  the  very  tree,  under  which  he  argued 
■with  Dr.  Staupitz  as  to  whether  it  was  his  true 
vocation  to  preach.  Beethoven  wrote  to  Frau  von 
Streicher,  at  Baden :  "  When  you  visit  the  ancient 
ruins,  do  not  forget  that  Beethoven  has  often  lingered 
there  ;  when  you  stray  through  the  silent  pine  forest, 
do  not  forget  that  Beethoven  often  wrote  poems  there, 
or,  as  it  is  termed,  '  composed.'  "  How  readily  we 
pardon  the  conceit  that  peeps  out  from  the  words  of 
the  great  magician  of  harmony !  Hawthorne  writes 
in  his  note-book :  "  If  ever  I  should  have  a  biographer, 
he  ought  to  make  great  mention  of  this  chamber  in 
my  memoirs ;  because  here  my  mind  and  character 
were  formed,  and  here  I  sat  a  long,  long  time,  wait- 
ing for  the  world  to  know  me,  and  sometimes  wonder- 
ing why  it  did  not  know  me  sooner,  or  whether  it 
would  ever  know  me  at  all,  —  at  least  until  I  were 
in  my  grave."  Scott  tells  us  of  the  precise  spot  where 
at  the  age  of  thirteen  he  first  read  Percy's  "  Reliques 
of  Ancient  English  Poetry,"  beneath  a  huge  platanus 
tree,  forgetting  his  dinner  in  the  absorbing  interest 
of  the  book,  whose  influence  upon  the  mind  of  the 
youth  may  easily  be  traced  in  the  future  poet  and 
romancer.  Cowper,  who  was  not  blessed  with  a  par- 
ticularly good  memory  with  regard  to  what  he  was 
accustomed  to  read,  yet  possessed  a  tenacious  one  for 
localities,  and  therefore  used  in  summer  to  select 
certain  spots  out  of  doors  by  pond  or  hedges  where 


222         GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

to  read  his  favorite  books  and  chapters.  The  recall- 
ing of  these  spots  brought  back,  he  said,  the  remem- 
brance of  the  subjects  and  chapters  read  beside  them. 
This  was  certainly  an  original  and  remarkable  mode 
of  memorizing  ideas.  William  Ellery  Channing  lo- 
calizes the  clump  of  willows,  a  favorite  retreat,  where 
the  view  of  the  dignity  of  human  nature  first  broke 
upon  him,  and  of  which  he  was  ever  after  such  a 
tenacious  advocate.  He  often  resorted  hither,  and 
speaks  of  the  place  with  grateful  solemnity.  It  over- 
looked the  meadows  and  river  west  of  Boston,  with 
a  background  formed  by  the  Brookline  hills.^  Wash- 
ington Irving  used  to  point  out  to  visitors  the  spot, 
commanding  the  Hudson  River,  where  he  first  read  the 
"  Lady  of  the  Lake,"  with  a  wild-cherry  tree  over  his 
head.  In  his  old  age  he  writes  to  a  friend :  "  Come 
and  see  me,  and  I  will  give  you  a  book  and  a  tree." 

As  an  example  of  the  perseverance  of  genius  under 
discouraging  circumstances,  we  recall  the  trying  expe- 
rience of  our  own  great  naturalist  Audubon,  who  had 
stored  in  a  pine  box  a  thousand  and  more  of  his  draw- 
ings for  his  great  work  on  "  The  Birds  of  America," 
while  he  pursued  his  studies.  On  opening  the  box, 
after  the  lapse  of  a  few  months,  he  found  his  carefully 
made  illustrations  destroyed  and  converted  into  a  nest 
for  rats.     The  work  of  years  was  irreparably  gone 

^  He  possessed  a  diminutive  figure,  mth  a  pale,  attenuated 
face,  eyes  of  spiritual  brightness,  an  expansive  and  calm  brow, 
and  his  movements  were  characterized  by  a  nervous  alacrity. 
Until  he  reached  the  years  of  middle  life  he  was  embarrassed  by 
restricted  means  and  necessary  habits  of  self-denial. 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.       223 

to  nought.  After  a  brief  period  of  bitter  disappoint- 
ment, lie  says :  "  I  took  up  my  gun,  my  note-book, 
and  my  pencil,  and  went  forth  to  the  woods  as  gayly 
as  if  nothing  had  happened.  I  felt  pleased  that  I 
might  now  make  better  drawings  than  before;  and, 
ere  a  period  not  exceeding  three  years  had  elapsed, 
my  portfolio  was  again  filled."  ^  The  destruction  of 
his  first  thousand  drawings  was  a  blessing  in  dis- 
guise, both  to  science  and  to  its  modest  disciple,  since 
it  confirmed  him  in  the  resolve  which  culminated  in 
producing  what  Cuvier  denominated  "  the  most  mag- 
nificent monument  art  had  ever  erected  to  ornithol- 
ogy." The  destruction  of  Sir  Isaac  Newton's  papers 
by  his  favorite  dog,  embracing  the  careful  calcula- 
tions of  years  of  study,  will  occur  to  the  reader  in 
this  connection,  as  well  as  the  loss  of  Carlyle's  first 
manuscript  copy  of  the  "  French  Revolution,"  burned 
by  a  maid-of-all-work  to  kindle  the  fire.  Having  no 
draft  or  copy  of  the  same,  he  was  compelled  to  repro- 
duce it  as  nearly  as  possible  from  memory.  There 
is  positive  pleasure  in  the  original  production  of  a 
piece  of  literary  work ;  but  the  reproduction  under 
such  circumstances  must  have  been  agonizing. 

^  With  gun  in  hand,  and  note-book  and  drawing  material  by 
his  side,  Audubon  explored  the  coast,  lakes,  and  rivers  from 
Labrador  and  Canada  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  As  early  as  1810 
he  explored  alone  the  primeval  forests  of  North  America,  im- 
pelled more  by  a  love  of  Nature  than  a  desire  to  make  himself 
famous.  His  original  and  finely  hand-colored  illustrated  work 
sold  in  folio  at  a  thousand  dollars  a  volume,  and  is  now  rare 
and  valuable. 


224        GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

The  history  of  literature  is  full  of  instances  where- 
in its  votaries  have  by  patient  perseverance  finally 
achieved  the  much-desired  fame  which  has  inspired 
them  to  endure  deprivation  and  labor.     We   affirm 
this,  though  at  the  same  time  recalling  Douglas  Jer- 
rold's  words,  — "  How  much  of  what  is  thought  by 
idle  people  fame  is  really  sought  for  as  the   repre- 
sentative of  so  many  legs  of  mutton !     We  may  make 
Fame  an  angelic  creature  on  the  tombs  of  poets,  but 
how  often  do  bards  invoke  her  as  a  bouncing  land- 
lady ! "     Pope  made  his  way  from  obscurity,  overcom- 
ing by  sheer  perseverance  obstacles  that  genius  hardly 
ever  before  encountered.     He  was  not  only  deformed, 
as  we  have  said,  but  he  was  diseased,  "  unable  to  take 
his  own  stockings  off —  a  woman  nurse  with  him  al- 
ways."    So  far  as  we  know  it,  there  was  not  much  to 
love,  or  even  respect,  in  his  personal  character  ;  but 
we  must  all  admire  the  wonderful  perseverance  and 
genius  that  enabled  him  to  write  what  he  did.     His 
translation  of  the  Iliad  alone  was  sufficient  to  give 
him  lasting  fame ;    and  it   did   give   him   plenty   of 
money,  as  he  received  a  little  over  five  thousand  three 
hundred  pounds  from  it.    How  Goldsmith  would  have 
scattered  that  generous  sum  of  money,  and  how  se- 
curely Pope  hoarded  it ! 

Gifford  showed  wonderful  perseverance  and  resolve 
in  the  right  direction,  learning  to  write  and  to  work 
out  mathematical  sums  on  scraps  of  leather  with  an 
awl,  for  the  want  of  better  facilities.  This  was  at 
his  native  place,  Ashburton  in  Devonshire,  where  he 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADO  W.        225 

sat  all  day  for  five  years  upon  a  cobbler's  bench, 
earning  just  enough  to  support  life.  But  he  con- 
quered in  the  brave  struggle  with  adverse  fortune. 
"  The  nerve  that  never  relaxes,  the  eye  that  never 
blenches,  the  thought  that  never  wanders,  —  these 
are  the  masters  of  victory,"  says  Burke.  Gifford 
finally  came  to  the  editorial  chair  of  the  "  Quarterly 
Review,"  where  he  remained  for  fifteen  years,  proving 
one  of  the  severest  critics  of  his  day,  as  we  have  had 
occasion  to  observe,  and  regarding  authors,  according 
to  Southey,  as  Izaak  Walton  did  worms,  slugs,  and 
frogs.  "  Whatever  may  have  been  his  talents,"  says 
Mr.  Whipple,  "  they  were  exquisitely  unfitted  for  his 
position;  his  literary  judgment  being  contemptible 
where  any  sense  of  beauty  was  required." 

As  an  example  of  calm,  determined  resolve  and 
patience  to  accomplish  an  honorable  end,  we  know  of 
nothing  more  remarkable  in  connection  with  author- 
ship or  literature  than  that  of  Sir  Walter  Scott's 
deliberately  sitting  down  to  pay  off  a  debt  of  one 
hundred  and  twenty-eight  thousand  pounds  with  his 
pen.  Scott  considered  it  a  debt  of  honor,  though 
it  was  not  of  his  own  contracting.  Amid  the  pains 
and  pressure  of  increasing  age  he  worked  on  to  fulfil 
this  honorable  purpose,  until  in  seven  years  he  had 
paid  all  but  about  twenty  thousand  pounds  of  this 
enormous  load  of  debt,  when  the  overwrought  brain 
and  body  gave  out,  and  he  was  laid  to  sleep  forever. 
The  great  "Wizard  of  the  North  "  says  modestly  :  "  It 
is  with  the  deepest  regret  that   I   recollect  in   my 

15 


226         GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADO  W. 

manhood  the  opportunities  of  learning  ^  which  I  neg- 
lected in  my  youth ;  through  every  part  of  my  literary 
career  I  have  felt  pinched  and  hampered  by  my  own 
ignorance,  and  I  would  at  this  moment  give  half  the 
reputation  I  have  had  the  good  fortune  to  acquire,  if 
by  so  doing  I  could  rest  the  remaining  part  upon  a 
sound  foundation  of  learning  and  science." 

1  Like  Milton,  Swift,  and  other  gi-eat  geniuses,  Scott  was,  as 
Swift  says  of  himself  at  school,  "very  justly  celebrated  for  his 
stupidity."  But  one  is  inclined  to  think  that  it  was  largely  owing 
to  a  want  of  talent  in  his  master  rather  than  in  the  pupil.  It 
will  be  remembered  that  it  was  the  illustrious  Samuel  Parr,  when 
an  undermaster  at  Harrow  School,  who  first  discovered  the  latent 
talent  and  genius  of  Sheridan,  and  who  by  judicious  cultivation 
brought  it  forth  and  developed  it. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

There  seems  always  to  have  been  a  natural  attrac- 
tion in  literature  which  draws  from  other  and  less 
captivating  professions,  Bryant,  Longfellow,  and 
"Washington  Irving  started  early  in  life  with  the  pur- 
pose of  studying  law  ;  so  did  Bailey  the  poet,  and  Pres- 
cott  the  historian,  —  though  each  and  all  abandoned 
that  profession  for  literature.  Beaconsfield  served 
an  apprenticeship  in  an  attorney's  office  in  London. 
Burke,  Lockhart,  John  Wilson,  Shirley  Brooks,  Cor- 
neille,  Layard,  and  Buffon  began  in  life  as  solicitors, 
but  soon  drifted  into  literature.  Byron's  first  poetical 
efforts  were  failures ;  so  were  those  of  Bulwer-Lytton 
and  Beaconsfield,  both  in  literature  and  oratory.  "  I 
have  begun  several  times  many  things,  and  have  suc- 
ceeded in  them  at  last,"  said  the  latter  when  he  was 
hissed  down  in  the  House  of  Commons.  "  I  shall  sit 
down  now,  but  the  time  will  come  when  you  will  hear 
me."  He  toiled  patiently,  until  the  House  laughed 
with  him  instead  of  at  him.^  Sheridan  broke  down 
completely  on  the  occasion  of  his  first  effort  at  public 

^  In  five  or  six  years  subsequent  to  that  failure  of  his  maiden 
speech,  Disraeli,  as  he  was  then  knoAvn,  became  leader  of  the 
Opposition  in  the  House,  and  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  soon 
after,  rising  rapidly,  until  in  1868  he  became  Premier  of  England. 


228        GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

speaking,  but  declared  that  it  was  in  him  and  should 
come  out.  Bulwer-Lytton  worked  his  way  upwards  by 
slow  degrees,  and  acquired  his  later  facility  only  by  the 
greatest  assiduity  and  patient  application.  He  wrote 
at  first  very  slowly  and  with  great  difficulty ;  but  he 
resolved  to  overcome  his  slowness  of  thought,  and  he 
succeeded.  He  was  very  systematic  in  his  literary 
work,  and  rarely  wrote  more  than  three  hours  each 
day ;  that  is,  from  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning  until  one. 
When  regularly  engaged,  the  product  of  a  day  in  latter 
years  amounted  to  twenty  pages  of  printed  matter, 
such  as  appear  in  the  regular  editions  of  his  novels. 
Jean  Paul  Richter's  first  efforts  as  a  writer  were 
failures ;  but  he  possessed  genius  and  the  great  element 
of  success,  —  namely,  patience.  He  fought  long  and 
hard  to  attain  a  position  in  literature,  supporting  him- 
self by  small  contributions  to  the  press,  not  all  of 
which  were  accepted  or  paid  for.  "  I  will  succeed  in 
making  an  honorable  living  by  my  pen,"  he  said,  "  or 
I  will  starve  in  the  attempt."  His  triumph  was  near 
at  hand.i 

It  is  the  overcoming  of  difficulties  by  heroic  perse- 
verance that  in  no  small  degree  serves  to  secure  and 
to  fix  success.     "  Every  noble  work  is  at  first  impos- 

1  Richter  was  a  Bavarian,  and  of  very  humble  birth.  During 
his  youthful  career  he  was  reduced  to  extreme  indigence.  He  be- 
came a  tutor  in  a  private  family,  and  afterwards  taught  school,  all 
the  while  striving  with  his  pen  both  for  fame  and  money,  until  at 
last  he  "  compelled  "  public  appreciation.  He  is  one  of  the  few 
geniuses  of  that  period  who  were  happy  in.  their  domestic  relations. 
He  died  at  Baireuth  in  1825. 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        229 

sible,"  says  Carlyle.  "  Even  in  social  life  it  is  per- 
sistency," says  Whipple,  "  which  attracts  confidence, 
more  than  talents  and  accomplishments." 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  the  greatest  geniuses  have 
not  commanded  success  at  the  outset,  but  have  finally 
achieved  it  by  deserving  it.  Voltaire  was  one  of  the 
most  brilliant  and  popular  of  dramatists ;  but  when 
"  Mariamne  "  was  brought  out,  it  was  played  but  once. 
The  question  of  its  merit  was  settled  oddly  enough. 
The  farce  which  was  given  after  Voltaire's  production 
was  entitled  "  Mourning."  "  For  the  deceased  play,  I 
suppose,"  said  one  of  the  critics,  in  the  pit ;  and  this 
decided  the  fate  of  the  piece.  Again,  when  the 
"  Semiramis  "  of  Voltaire  was  acted  for  the  first  time, 
it  was  far  from  receiving  all  the  praise  which  its 
author  anticipated  for  it.  As  he  was  coming  from 
the  theatre,  he  overtook  Piron,  a  less  celebrated  but 
brother  dramatist,  and  asked  him  his  opinion  of  the 
piece.  "I  think,"  said  Piron,  "you  would  be  very 
glad  if  I  had  written  it ! " 

Dr.  Samuel  Parr,  whom  Macaulay  pronounced  to  be 
the  greatest  scholar  of  his  age,  was  a  very  hard-work- 
ing literary  genius,  sensitive  more  especially  to  the 
tender  emotions,  so  that  he  would  weep  like  a  woman 
when  listening  to  any  affecting  story.  He  was  very 
erratic  and  imaginative,  having  a  special  horror  of 
the  east  wind,  which  he  believed  had  both  a  moral 
and  physical  power  over  him.  Sheridan  knew  this 
very  well,  and  kept  the  Doctor  a  prisoner  in  the  house 
for  a  whole  fortnight  by  fixing  the  weathercock  in 


230         GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

that  direction.     The  Doctor  was  not  without  his  share 
of  conceit,  founded  upon  the  possession  of  acknowl- 
edged talent  and  ability.     He  once  said  in  a  miscella- 
neous assembly,  pertinent  to  the   subject  before  the 
company  :  "  England  has  produced  three  great  classi- 
cal scholars :  the  first  was  Bentley,  the  second  was 
Porson,  and  the  third  modesty  forbids  me  to  mention." 
In  glancing  through  the  records  of  the  past  no  name 
upon  the  roll  of  fame  strikes  the  eye  of  appreciation 
more  pleasantly  than  that  of  Sir  Philip  Sidney,  whose 
life  has  been  called  poetry  put  in  action.     He  lived 
amid  contemporary  applause,  and  his  memory  is  the 
admiration  of   all.     The  bravest  of  soldiers,  he  was 
also  the  gentlest  of  sons,  equally  illustrious  for  moral 
qualities   and   for  intellectual   genius,  controlled  by 
"  that  chastity  of  honor  which  felt  a   stain  like   a 
wound."     No   incident  in  history   is   more   familiar 
than  that  of  this  exhausted  warrior  resigning  the  cup 
of  water  to  a  fainting  soldier,  whose  need,  he  said, 
was  greater  than  his  own.     Sidney  was  one  of  the 
brightest    ornaments    of    Queen    Elizabeth's    court. 
Lord  Brooke,  who  was  his  intimate  friend,  says  of 
him  :  "  Though  I  lived  with  him  and  knew  him  from 
a  child,  yet  I  never  knew  him  other  than  a  man  with 
such  steadiness  of  mind,  lovely  and  familiar  gravity, 
as  carried  grace  and  reverence  above  greater  years. 
His  talk  was  ever  of  knowledge,  and  his  very  play 
tended  to  enrich  the  mind."     His  death  occurred  at 
the  age  of  thirty-two,  from  a  wound  in  battle,  the 
result  of  his  self-abnegation.     He  was  in  full  armor, 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        231 

but  seeing  the  marshal  of  the  camp  miprotected,  he 
took  off  his  armor  and  gave  it  to  him,  thus  expos- 
ing himself  to  the  mortal  wound  which  he  received. 
Fuller  says,  "  He  was  slain  before  Zutphen,  in  a  small 
skirmish  which  we  may  sadly  term  a  great  battle, 
considering  our  heavy  loss  therein." 

Victor  Hugo  was  banished  from  France  for  his  op- 
position to  the  eoup  d'etat.  He  was  ever  true  to  his 
convictions  without  counting  the  cost.  "  If  there  is 
anything  grander  than  Victor  Hugo's  genius,"  said 
Louis  Blanc, "  it  is  the  use  which  he  has  made  of  it." 
He  affords  us  an  instance  of  the  highest  fame  and  the 
favor  of  fortune  culminating  in  ripe  old  age.  When 
Hugo  was  but  a  rising  man,  he  was  still  looked  upon 
by  the  elder  litterateurs  with  considerable  jealousy. 
At  the  time  when  he  was  first  an  aspirant  for  the 
honors  of  the  French  Academy,  and  called  on  M. 
Royer-Collard  to  solicit  his  vote,  the  sturdy  veteran 
professed  entire  ignorance  of  his  name.  "  I  am  the 
author  of  '  Notre  Dame  de  Paris,'  '  Marion  Delorme,' 
'  Les  Derniers  Jours  d'un  Condamne,'  etc."  "  I  never 
heard  of  them,"  said  Collard.  "  Will  you  do  me  the 
honor  of  accepting  a  copy  of  my  works  ? "  said  Victor 
Hugo,  with  perfect  urbanity.  "  I  never  read  new 
books,"  was  the  cutting  reply .^     But  the  time  came 

1  Royer-Collard  was  an  eminent  philosopher  and  statesman, 
the  founder  of  a  school  called  the  "  Doctrinaire,"  of  which  Cousin 
was  a  disciple.  He  was  President  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  in 
1828.  His  father's  family  name  was  Royer,  to  which  he  joined 
the  name  of  his  wife,  Mademoiselle  Collard. 


232        GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

presently  when  not  to  know  the  author  of  "  Les 
Misdrables  "  was  to  argue  one's  self  unknown.  When 
he  had  reached  the  age  of  sixty-three  he  wrote  on 
a  bit  of  sketching  paper  accompanying  a  scene  he 
wished  to  delineate  in  the  "  Toilers  of  the  Sea :  " 
"  On  the  face  of  this  cardboard  I  have  sketched  my 
own  destiny,  —  a  steamboat  tossed  by  the  tempest 
in  the  midst  of  the  monstrous  ocean;  almost  dis- 
abled, assaulted  by  foaming  waves,  and  having  noth- 
ing left  but  a  bit  of  smoke  which  people  call  glory, 
which  the  wind  sweeps  away,  and  which  constitutes 
its  strength." 

Improvidence  has  ever  been  a  distinctive  and  a 
common  feature  in  the  lives  of  men  of  genius.  Sir 
Thomas  Lawrence,  the  celebrated  English  portrait- 
painter,  was  an  illustrious  example.  Of  his  natural 
genius  there  was  ample  evidence  even  in  childhood, 
when  at  the  age  of  six  years  he  produced  in  crayon 
in  a  very  few  moments  accurate  likenesses  of  eminent 
persons.  At  the  age  of  twenty-three  he  succeeded 
Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  as  first  painter  to  the  king. 
He  received  a  hundred  guineas  each  for  his  por- 
traits,—  head  and  bust,  —  and  one  thousand  if  full- 
length,  which  was  a  large  price  for  those  days  ; 
and  yet  he  was  always  embarrassed  for  money,  and 
died  deeply  in  debt  while  president  of  the  Royal 
Academy. 

Thomas  Moore  was  very  improvident ;  and  though 
he  realized  over  thirty  thousand  pounds  from  his 
literary  productions,  yet  his  family  were  obliged  to 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        233 

live  in  the  most  economical  manner,  often  experien- 
cing serious  deprivation  of  the  ordinary  comforts  of 
life.  "  His  excellent  wife,"  says  Rogers,  "  contrived 
to  maintain  the  whole  family  upon  a  guinea  a  week ; 
and  he,  when  in  London,  thought  nothing  of  throw- 
ing away  that  sum  weekly  on  hackney-coaches  and 
gloves."  In  order  to  escape  the  payment  of  his  just 
debts,  Moore  was  finally  obliged  to  go  to  Paris,  where, 
Rogers  tells  us,  he  frittered  away  a  thousand  pounds 
a  year.i  ^ 

Lamartine  and  the  elder  Dumas  are  notable  exam- 
ples of  gross  improvidence,  —  the  first  being  reduced 
almost  to  beggary  before  his  death,  and  supported 
solely  by  the  liberal  contributions  of  his  admirers, 
while  the  latter  was  much  of  his  life  either  squander- 
ring  gold  profusely  or  dodging  his  honest  creditors. 

Richard  Savage,  the  unfortunate  poet  and  drama- 
tist, passed  his  life  divided  between  beggary  and  ex- 
travagance. His  undoubted  genius  and  ability  as  an 
author  attracted  the  hearty  friendship  of  Johnson  and 
Steele,  both  of  whom  made  earnest  efforts  to  save  him 
from  himself ;  but  dissolute  habits  had  taken  too  firm 
a  hold  of  him.  It  is  also  honorable  to  Pope  that  he 
was  his  steady  and  consistent  friend  almost  to  the 
close  of  his  life.  Savage's  ill-conceived  poem  of 
"  The  Bastard  "  was  intended  to  expose  the  cruelty 

^  Hazlitt  was  a  just  but  merciless  critic.  It  was  he  who 
designated  Moore's  productions  "  the  poetry  of  the  toilet-table,  of 
the  saloon,  and  of  the  fashionable  world, — not  the  poetry  of 
nature,  of  the  heart,  or  of  human  life;"  and  the  force  of  the  criti- 
cism lay  in  the  fact  of  its  truth. 


234         GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

of  his  mother,  who  was  responsible  in  the  main  for 
the  wreck  of  his  life.  He  finally  died  a  prisoner  for 
debt  in  Bristol  jail.  Undoubtedly  Dr.  Johnson  was 
right  when  he  said  that  the  miseries  which  Savage 
underwent  were  sometimes  the  consequence  of  his 
faults,  and  his  faults  were  often  the  effect  of  his 
misfortunes. 

The  period  of  which  we  are  writing  has  been  vividly 
described  by  Macaulay,  from  whom  we  quote :  — 

"  All  that  is  squalid  and  miserable  might  now  be  summed 
up  in  the  word  Poet.     That  word  denoted  a  creature  dressed 
like  a  scarecrow,  familiar  with  compters  and  sponging-houses, 
and  perfectly  competent  to  decide  on  the  comparative  merits 
of  the  Common  Side  in  the  King's  Bench  prison  and  of 
Mount   Scoundrel   in  the  Fleet.     Even  the  poorest  pitied 
him ;  and  they  well  might  pity  him.     For  if  their  condition 
was  equally  abject,  their  aspirings  were  not  equally  high, 
nor  their   sense   of   insult   equally  acute.     To  lodge  in  a 
garret  up  four  pair  of  stairs,  to  dine  in  a  cellar  among  foot- 
men out  of  place,  to  translate  ten  hours  a  day  for  the  wages 
of  a  ditcher,  to  be  hunted  by  bailiffs  from  one  haunt  of  beg- 
gary and  pestilence  to  another,  —  from  Grub  Street  to  St. 
George's  Field,  and  from  St.  George's  Field  to  the  alleys 
behind  St.  Martin's  church,  —  to  sleep  on  a  bulk  in  June 
and  amidst  the  ashes  of  a  glass-house  in  December,  to  die 
in  a  hospital  and  to  be  buried  in  a  parish  vault,  was  the 
fate  of  more  than  one  writer  who,  if  he  had  lived  thirty 
years  earlier,  would  have  been  admitted  to  the  sittings  of 
the  Kitcat  or  the  Scriblerus  club,  would  have  sat  in  Parlia- 
ment, and  would  have  been  intrusted  with  embassies  to  the 
High  Allies ;  who,  if  he  had  lived  in  our  time,  would  have 
found  encouragement  scarcely  less  munificent  in  Albemarle 
Street  or  in  Paternoster  Row. 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        235 

"  As  every  climate  has  its  peculiar  diseases,  so  every  walk 
of  life  has  its  peculiar  temptations.     The  literary  character 
assuredly  has  always  had  its  share  of  faults,  vanity,  jealousy, 
morbid  sensibility.     To  these  faults  were  now  superadded 
the  faults  which  are  commonly  found  in  men  whose  liveli- 
hood is  precarious,  and  whose  principles  are  exposed  to  the 
trial  of  severe  distress.     All  the  vices  of  the  gambler  and 
of  the  beggar  were  blended  with  those  of  the  author.     The 
prizes  in  the  wretched  lottery  of  book-making  were  scarcely 
less  ruinous  than  the  blanks.     If  good  fortune  came,  it  came 
in  such  a  manner  that  it  was  almost  certain  to  be  abused. 
After  a  month  of  starvation  and  despair,  a  full  third  night 
or  a  well-received  dedication  filled  the  pocket  of  the  lean, 
ragged,  unwashed  poet  with  guineas.     He  hastened  to  en- 
joy those  luxuries  with  the  images  of  which  his  mind  had 
been  haunted  while  he  was  sleeping  amidst  the  cinders  and 
eating  potatoes  at  the   Irish  ordinary  in  Shoe  Lane.     A 
week  of   taverns   soon   qualified  him  for   another  year  of 
night-cellars.     Such  was  the  life  of  Savage,  of  Boyse,  and 
of  a  crowd  of  others.     Sometimes  blazing  in  gold-lace  hats 
and  waistcoats;  sometimes  lying  in  bed  because  their  coats 
had  gone  to  pieces,  or  wearing  paper  cravats  because  their 
linen   was   in   pawn;   sometimes   drinking  champagne   and 
Tokay   with   Betty   Careless  ;   sometimes   standing   at   the 
window  of  an  eating-house  in  Porridge  island,  to  snuff  up 
the  scent   of   what  they  could  not  afford  to  taste,  —  they 
knew  luxury ;  they  knew  beggary  ;  but  they  never  knew 
comfort.     These  men  were  irreclaimable.     They  looked  on 
a  regular   and  frugal   life  with   the   same   aversion  which 
an  old  gypsy  or  a  Mohawk  hunter  feels  for  a   stationary 
abode,   and   for   the   restraints   and   securities    of  civilized 
communities." 

Notwithstanding  Douglas  Jerrold  received  a  thou- 
sand pounds  per  annum  from  "  Lloyd's  Weekly  News- 


236         GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

paper"  alone,  besides  a  respectable  income  from 
"  Punch "  and  other  literary  labor,  he  never  had  a 
guinea  in  his  pocket ;  every  penny  was  forestalled, 
and  he  left  his  family  in  extreme  penury. 

Goldsmith,  as  we  have  seen,  was  the  most  improvi- 
dent of  men,  and  died  owing  two  thousand  pounds ; 
which  led  Dr.  Johnson  to  say,  "  "Was  ever  poet  so 
trusted  before  ? "  It  was  at  this  time  that  Boswell, 
who  was  always  a  little  jealous  of  Goldsmith's  inti- 
macy with  Johnson,  made  some  disparaging  remarks 
about  the  dead  poet  ;  whereupon  Johnson  promptly 
replied,  "  Dr.  Goldsmith  was  wild,  sir,  but  he  is  so  no 
more  ! "  "  Cover  the  good  man  who  has  been  van- 
quished," says  Thackeray,  —  "  cover  his  face  and  pass 
on !  "  Some  families  seem  to  inherit  impecuniosity ; 
Goldsmith  came  thus  rightfully,  so  to  speak,  by  his 
weakness  in  this  respect.^ 

Sheridan,  according  to  Byron,  wrote  the  best 
comedy,  the  "  School  for  Scandal ; "  the  best  opera, 
the  "Duenna;"  the  best  farce,  the  "Critic;"  and 
delivered  the  most  famous  oration  of  modern  times. 
With  genius  and  talents  which  entitled  him  to  the 
highest  station,  he  yet  sank  into  difficulties,  mostly 
through  inexcusable  improvidence,  outraging  every 
principle  of  justice  and   of  truth,  finally   dying  in 

^  Goldsmith  himself  tells  us  :  "  My  father,  the  younger  son  of 
a  good  family,  was  possessed  of  a  small  living  in  the  Church.  His 
education  was  above  his  fortune,  and  his  generosity  greater  than 
his  education.  Poor  as  he  was,  he  had  his  flatterers  ;  for  every 
dinner  he  gave  them  they  returned  him  an  equivalent  in  praise, 
and  this  was  all  he  wanted." 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        237 

neglect.  The  reader  will  be  apt  to  recall  the  anec- 
dote illustrative  of  Sheridan's  impecuniosity.  As  he 
was  hacking  his  face  one  day  with  a  dull  razor,  he 
turned  to  his  son  and  said,  "  Tom,  if  you  open  any 
more  oysters  with  my  razor,  I  '11  cut  you  off  with  a 
shilling."  "  Very  well,  father,"  was  the  reply ;  "  but 
where  is  the  shilling  to  come  from  ? "  Sheridan 
thought  if  he  had  stuck  to  the  law  he  might  have 
done  as  well  as  his  friend  Erskine ;  "  but,"  he  added, 
"  I  had  no  time  for  such  studies ;  Mrs.  Sheridan  and 
myself  were  often  obliged  to  keep  writing  for  our 
daily  leg  or  shoulder  of  mutton,  otherwise  we  should 
have  had  no  dinner;  yes,  it  was  2. joint  concern." 

All  authorities  combine  in  pronouncing  the  great 
speech  of  Sheridan  on  the  impeachment  of  Warren 
Hastings  to  be  one  of  the  grandest  oratorical  efforts 
known  to  us.  But  the  persuasive  power  of  eloquence 
was  never  better  illustrated  than  in  the  instance  of 
Mirabeau  when  he  pleaded  his  own  case.  His  liaison 
with  the  Marchioness  de  Mounier  surpasses,  in  fact, 
all  stories  of  romance.  Mirabeau  induced  her  to  run 
away  with  him,  for  which  she  was  seized  and  thrown 
into  a  convent,  while  he  escaped  to  Switzerland.^  He 
was  brought  to  trial,  was  convicted  of  contumacy, 
and  sentenced  to  lose  his  head.  The  lady  escaped 
and  once  more  joined  him ;  together  they  passed  into 

1  It  happened  that  a  certain  lady  became  charmed  with  Mira- 
beau by  reading  his  writings,  and  wrote  him  rather  a  tender  letter, 
asking  him  to  describe  himself  to  her.  He  did  so  by  return  of 
post  as  follows  :  "Figure  to  yourself  a  tiger  that  has  had  the 
small-pox."    History  has  not  handed  down  the  sequel. 


238        GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

Holland,  where  they  were  a  second  time  arrested,  she 
being  again  immured  in  a  convent  and  he  confined 
in  the  Castle  of  Vincennes,  where  he  remained  for 
more  than  three  years.  After  his  liberation  he  ob- 
tained a  new  trial,  pleaded  his  own  case,  and  by  the 
impassioned  power  of  his  all-commanding  eloquence 
he  terrified  the  court  and  the  prosecutor,  melted  the 
audience  to  tears,  obtained  a  prompt  reversal  of  his 
sentence,  and  even  threw  the  whole  cost  of  the  suit 
upon  the  prosecution.^ 

When  the  stupid,  ill-bred  Judge  Eobinson  insulted 
Curran  by  reflecting  upon  his  poverty  while  he  was 
arguing  a  case  before  him,  saying  to  him  that  he 
"suspected  his  law  library  was  rather  contracted," 
Curran  answered  the  servile  office-holder  in  words 
of  aptest  eloquence  and  cutting  irony.  "  It  is  true, 
my  lord,"  said  Curran,  with  dignified  respect,  "  that 
I  am  poor,  and  the  circumstance  has  somewhat  cur- 
tailed my  library  ;  my  books  are  not  numerous, 
but  they  are  select,  and  I  hope  they  have  been 
perused  with  proper  disposition.  I  have  prepared 
myself  for  this  high  profession  rather  by  the  study 
of  a  few  good  works  than  by  the  composition  of  a 
great  many  bad  ones.  I  am  not  ashamed  of  my 
poverty,  but  I  should  be  ashamed  of  my  wealth  could 
I  have  stooped  to  acquire  it  by  servility  and  corrup- 
tion.    If  I   rise  not  to  rank,  I   shall   at  least  be 

1  Mirabeau  and  the  Marchioness  had  agreed  on  mutual  de- 
struction, hy  exchanging  poisoned  locks  of  hair,  if  he  failed  to  be 
acquitted. 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.       239 

honest;  and  should  I  ever  cease  to  be  so,  many  an 
example  shows  me  that  ill-gained  reputation,  by  mak- 
ing me  the  more  conspicuous,  would  only  make  me 
the  more  universally  and  the  more  notoriously  con- 
temptible ! "  ^ 

Speaking  of  eloquence,  Hazlitt  describes  how  he 
walked  ten  miles  to  hear  Coleridge  the  poet  preach, 
and  declared  that  he  could  not  have  been  more  de- 
lighted if  he  had  heard  the  music  of  the  spheres. 
The  names  of  Fox,  Pitt,  Grattan,  Patrick  Henry, 
Daniel  Webster,  Wendell  Phillips,  and  Eufus  Choate, 
with  many  others,  crowd  upon  the  mind  as  we  dwell 
upon  the  theme  of  eloquence  in  oratory.  There  is 
eloquence  of  the  pen  as  well  as  of  the  tongue ; 
Socrates  of  old,  celebrated  for  his  noble  oratorical 
compositions,  was  of  so  timid  a  disposition  that  he 
rarely  ventured  to  speak  in  public.  He  compared 
himself  to  a  whetstone,  which  will  not  cut,  but  which 
readily  enables  other  things  to  do  so ;  for  his  produc- 
tions served  as  models  to  other  orators. 

We  have  myriads  of  examples  showing  us  that 
accident  has  often  determined  the  bent  and  develop- 
ment of  genius.  Accident  may  not,  however,  create 
genius ;  it  is  innate,  or  it  is  not  at  all.  Cowley  tells 
us  that  when  quite  young  he  chanced  upon  a  copy  of 

1  To  make  the  appropriateness  of  this  retort  clear,  it  should  be 
known  that  Judge  Robinson  was  the  author  of  many  stupid, 
slavish,  and  scurrilous  political  pamphlets  ;  and  by  his  servility  to 
the  ruling  powers  he  had  been  raised  to  the  eminence  which  he 
thus  shamefully  disgraced. 


2-10         GEXIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

the  "  Faerie  Qucenc,"  ^  nearly  the  only  book  at  hand, 
and  becoming  interested  he  read  it  carefully  and 
often,  until  enchanted  thereby  he  became  irrevocably 
a  poet.  The  apple  that  fell  on  Newton's  head  with 
a  force  apparently  out  of  all  proportion  to  its  size, 
led  him  to  ponder  upon  the  fact,  until  he  deduced  the 
great  law  of  gravitation  and  laid  the  foundation  of 
his  philosophy.  It  was  Shakspeare's  youthful  roguery 
which  drove  him  from  his  trade  of  wool-carding  and 
necessitated  his  leaving  Stratford.  A  company  of 
strolling  actors  became  his  first  new  associates,  and 
he  took  up  with  their  business  for  a  while ;  but  dis- 
satisfied with  his  own  success  as  an  actor  he  turned 
to  writing  plays,  and  thus  arose  the  greatest  drama- 
tist the  world  has  produced.  Moliere,  who  was  of 
very  low  birth,  being  often  taken  as  a  lad  to  the 
theatre  by  his  grandfather,  was  thus  led  to  study  the 
usages  of  the  stage,  and  came  to  be  the  greatest 
dramatic  author  of  France.  "Tartuffe,"  which  he 
wrote  a  hundred  and  twenty  years  ago,  still  holds 
the  stage,  as  well  as  many  others  of  his  inimitable 
productions.  He  was  the  Shakspeare  of  France. 
Hallam  says  that  Shakspeare  had  the  greater  genius, 

^  The  effect  the  poem  had  upon  the  Earl  of  Southampton  when 
he  first  read  it  will  be  remembered.  Spenser  took  it  to  this  noble 
patron  of  poets  as  soon  as  it  was  finished,  and  sent  it  up  to  him. 
The  earl  read  a  few  pages  and  said  to  a  servant,  "  Take  the  writer 
twenty  pounds."  Reading  on,  he  presently  cried  in  rapture, 
"  Carry  that  man  twenty  pounds  more."  Still  he  read  on ;  but 
at  length  he  shouted,  "  Go  turn  that  fellow  out  of  the  house,  for 
if  I  read  further  I  shall  be  ruined !  " 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        241 

but  Moliere  has  perhaps  written  the  better  comedies. 
Corneille  fell  in  love,  and  was  thus  incited  to  pour 
out  his  feelings  in  verse,  developing  rapidly  into  a 
poet  and  dramatist.  He  was  intended  for  the  law ; 
but  love  tripped  up  his  heels  and  made  him  a 
poet. 

The  chance  perusal  of  De  Foe's  "  Essay  on  Projects,'* 
Dr.  Franklin  tells  us,  influenced  the  principal  events 
and  course  of  his  life  ;  so  the  reading  of  the  "  Lives  of 
the  Saints  "  caused  Ignatius  Loyola  to  form  the  pur- 
pose of  creating  a  new  religious  order,  —  which  pur- 
pose eventuated  in  the  powerful  society  of  the  Jesuits. 
Benjamin  West  says,  "  A  kiss  from  my  mother  made 
me  a  painter."  ^  La  Fontaine  read  by  chance  a  volume 
of  Malherbe's  poems, — he  who  was  called  "the  poet  of 
princes  and  the  prince  of  poets,"  —  whereby  he  became 
so  impressed,  that  ever  after  his  mind  sought  expres- 
sion through  the  same  medium.  Rousseau's  eccentric 
genius  was  first  aroused  by  an  advertisement  offering 
a  prize  for  the  best  essay  on  a  certain  theme,  which 
brought  out  his  "  Declamation  against  the  Arts  and 
Sciences  "  (winning  the  prize  thereby),  and  deter- 
mined his  future  career.  The  husband  and  father  of 
the  woman  who  nursed  Michael  Angelo  were  stone- 

^  When  a  boy,  West  secretly  pursued  his  first  attempts  at  art, 
absenting  himself  from  school  to  do  so.  Being  one  day  surprised 
at  his  work  in  the  garret  of  the  house  by  his  mother,  he  expected 
to  be  seriously  reproved  ;  but  Mrs.  West  saw  incipient  genius  in 
her  son's  work  at  the  age  of  ten;  so  she  kissed  and  congratulated 
him,  promising  to  intercede  wdth  his  father  in  his  behalf  that  he 
would  forgive  him  for  bis  truancy. 

16 


242         GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

masons,  and  the  chisel  thus  became  the  first  and  most 
common  plaything  put  into  the  child's  hands ;  hence 
his  earliest  efforts  were  made  to  apply  the  hammer 
and  chisel  to  marble,  and  the  seed  was  planted  which 
blossomed  into  art.  It  was  the  accidental  observation 
of  steam,  lifting  by  its  expansive  power  the  heavy 
iron  cover  of  a  boiling  pot,  that  suggested  to  the  mind 
of  James  Watt  thoughts  which  led  to  the  invention  of 
the  steam-engine.  The  "  Pickwick  Papers,"  Dickens's 
earliest  and  best  literary  work,  owes  its  origin  to 
the  publisher  of  a  magazine  upon  which  he  was 
doing  job-work  desiring  him  to  write  a  serial  story 
to  fit  some  comic  pictures  which  were  in  the  pub- 
lisher's possession.  The  genius  was  in  Dickens,  but 
it  slept. 

The  sight  of  Virgil's  tomb,  just  above  the  Grotto  of 
Posilippo,  at  Naples,  determined  Giovanni's  literary 
vocation  for  life.  So  Gibbon  was  struck  with  the  idea 
of  writing  his  "  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire," 
as  he  sat  dreaming  amid  the  ruins  of  the  Forum.^ 
When  Scott  was  a  mere  boy  he  chanced  upon  a  copy 
of  Percy's  "Reliques  of  Ancient  Poetry,"  which  he 
read  with  eagerness  again  and  again.     As  soon  as  he 

^  It  was  not  without  difl&culty  that  Gibbon  could  obtain  a  pub- 
lisher for  his  famous  History.  After  it  had  been  declined  by 
several  houses,  it  was  finally  undertaken  by  Thomas  CadeU,  "  on 
easy  terms,"  as  the  author  expresses  it.  It  was  thought  best  to 
publish  only  five  hundred  copies  at  first ;  this  edition  being  soon 
exhausted,  edition  after  edition  followed  in  rapid  succession, 
until,  as  Gibbon  says,  "  my  book  was  on  every  table  and  on  almost 
every  toilet." 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        243 

could  get  the  necessary  sum  of  money,  he  purchased 
a  copy  ;  and  thus  the  taste  for  poetry  was  early  instilled 
into  his  soul  and  found  after  expression  in  his  charm- 
ing poems.  Scott's  first  literary  effort  was  the  trans- 
lation of  "  Gdtz  von  Berlichengen,"  to  which  Carlyle 
ascribes  large  influence  on  the  great  novelist's  future 
career.  He  says  this  translation  was  "  the  prime  cause 
of  '  Marmion '  and  the  '  Lady  of  the  Lake,'  with  all 
that  has  followed  from  the  same  creative  hand.  Truly 
a  grain  of  seed  that  had  lighted  in  the  right  soil.  For 
if  not  firmer  and  fairer,  it  has  grown  to  be  taller  and 
broader  than  any  other  tree ;  and  all  nations  of  the 
earth  are  still  yearly  gathering  of  its  fruit." 

While  in  England,  not  long  since,  the  writer  of  these 
pages  was  told  an  anecdote  relating  to  Mrs.  Siddons 
which  was  new  to  him,  and  which  illustrates  how  often 
accident  has  directed  the  future  bent  of  genius.  When 
quite  a  young  lady,  Sarah  Siddons  saw  in  some  private 
gallery  an  antique  statue  of  great  excellence,  which 
had  a  most  electrifying  effect  upon  her.  It  suggested 
to  her  at  once  the  most  effective  position  and  manner  in 
which  to  express  intensity  of  feeling.  The  arms  were 
close  down  at  the  sides,  and  the  hands  nervously 
clenched,  while  the  head  was  erect,  the  chest  expanded, 
and  the  face  half  in  profile.  "  I  cannot  express  how 
indelibly  the  pose  took  effect  upon  my  imagination," 
said  the  great  actress  many  years  afterwards,  "  or  the 
force  of  the  lesson  taught  me  by  the  marble."  If 
memory  serves  us  correctly,  we  recall  an  old  engrav- 
ing of  Mrs.  Siddons  in  the  character  of  Lady  Macbeth, 


244        GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

which  would  be  nearly  a  reproduction  of  the  pose 
described.^ 

Accident  developed  one  of  the  greatest  vocalists 
the  world  has  ever  known.  Jenny  Lind  was  at  the 
beginning  of  her  life  a  poor  neglected  little  girl, 
homely  and  uncouth,  living  in  a  single  room  of  a 
tumble-down  house  in  a  narrow  street  at  Stockholm. 
When  the  humble  woman  who  had  her  in  charge  went 
out  to  her  daily  labor,  she  was  accustomed  to  lock 
Jenny  in  with  her  sole  companion,  a  cat.  One  day 
the  little  girl,  who  was  always  singing  to  herself  like 
a  canary-bird,  "  because,"  as  she  said,  "  the  song  was 
in  her  and  would  come  out,"  sat  with  her  dumb  com- 
panion at  the  window  warbling  her  sweet  childlike 
notes.  She  was  overheard  by  a  passing  lady,  who 
paused  and  listened,  struck  by  the  clearness  and  trill 
of  the  untutored  notes.  She  made  careful  inquiries 
about  the  child  and  became  the  patroness  of  little 
Jenny,  who  was  at  once  supplied  with  a  music-teacher. 
She  loved  the  art  of  song,  and  had  the  true  genius 
for  it.  Jenny  made  rapid  progress,  surprising  both 
patroness  and  teachers,  and  presently  became  the 
great  Queen  of  Song. 

^  Sydney  Smith  said  of  Mrs.  Siddons  :  "  What  a  face  she  had ! 
The  gods  do  not  bestow  such  a  face  as  hers  on  the  stage  more  than 
once  in  a  century.  I  knew  her  very  well,  and  she  had  the  good 
taste  to  laugh  at  my  jokes  ;  she  was  an  excellent  person,  but  she  > 
was  not  remarkable  out  of  her  profession,  and  never  got  out  of 
tragedy  even  in  common  life.  She  used  to  stab  the  potatoes  ;  and 
said  '  Boy,  give  lae  a  knife ! '  as  she  would  have  said  *  Give  me  a 
dagger  ! ' " 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        245 

The  world  knows  of  Jenny  Lind's  splendid  fortune, 
of  her  professional  triumphs,  and  of  her  noble  charities ; 
but  few,  perhaps,  have  ever  pictured  her  humble  girl- 
hood, cooped  up  in  a  cheerless  room,  with  only  her  cat 
for  a  companion,  in  a  dull  quarter  of  the  Swedish 
capital.  The  plain,  awkward  girl  grew  up  under 
favorable  culture  to  be  a  graceful,  lovely  woman.  The 
courts  of  Europe  treated  her  as  a  revered  guest ;  she 
was  covered  with  laurels  and  with  jewels,  but  she  was 
ever  in  disposition  and  character  the  same  pure, 
simple  Swedish  girl.  Adulation  had  no  power  to  spoil 
this  child  of  Nature  and  of  art.  The  Swedish  public 
cherish  her  name  as  that  of  their  most  favored 
daughter,  and  honor  her  for  the  noble  educational 
institution  which  she  has  so  liberally  founded  in  her 
native  Stockholm. 

Christina  Nilsson,  another  Scandinavian  vocalist, 
was  the  daughter  of  an  humble  Swedish  peasant,  born 
in  so  lowly  a  cabin  that  it  was  difficult  to  conceive  of 
the  name  of  "  home  "  being  applied  to  it.  While  yet  a 
child  she  was  obliged  to  work  with  the  rest  of  the 
family  in  the  fields  and  on  the  mountain-side.  Her 
sweet  voice  was  first  heard  at  the  fairs  and  peasant 
weddings,  where  her  simple  Scandinavian  melodies 
delighted  the  assembled  crowds.  At  one  of  these 
public  gatherings  a  man  of  taste  and  means  heard 
the  child's  voice,  and  realized  the  hidden  possibilities 
it  indicated.  He  was  a  magistrate,  and  became  her 
patron,  taking  her  from  her  humble  surroundings  and 
supplying  her  with  suitable  teachers.     She  was  care- 


246         GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

fully  taught  instrumental  as  well  as  vocal  music,  and 
became  both  an  eminent  pianist  and  singer,  develop- 
ing like  her  fair  countrywoman,  Jenny  Lind,  into  a 
vocalist  of  grandest  genius,  and  of  such  ability  as  the 
world  affords  but  few  examples. 

Taglioni  was  also  Scandinavian  by  birth,  having 
been  born  at  Stockholm,  in  1804,  of  humble  parentage, 
her  father  being  a  dancing-master.  She  had  the 
genius  of  an  artist,  which  she  patiently  developed 
through  many  dark  hours  of  toil  and  deprivation, 
until  she  made  herself  acknowledged  as  queen  of  the 
ballet  in  the  great  cities  of  Europe.  Her  purity  of 
character  added  a  charm  to  her  public  performances, 
giving  her  a  prestige  never  before  enjoyed  by  any  ex- 
ponent of  her  art.  She  finally  amassed  a  large  for- 
tune, and  retiring  from  the  stage  married  Count  Gil- 
bert de  Yoisins.  Doubtless  many  of  our  readers  have 
paused  in  their  gondolas  beneath  the  windows  of  her 
marble  palace  on  the  Grand  Canal  at  Venice,  to  re- 
call the  story  of  the  great  danseuse,  or  have  looked 
with  pleasure  upon  her  elegant  villa  on  the  Lake  of 
Como. 


CHAPTER  X. 

It  is  not  the  author's  purpose  to  treat  the  names  of 
painters,  or  indeed  those  of  any  other  branch  of  art, 
especially  by  themselves.  Were  any  single  line  to  be 
selected,  the  peculiarities  of  its  representatives  would 
alone  be  sufficient  to  fill  a  volume.  Under  the  gen- 
eral design  of  this  gossip  about  genius,  the  pen  is 
permitted  to  glide  after  its  own  fancy,  treating  only 
upon  such  individuals  as  readily  suggest  themselves, 
and  who  are  illustrative  of  characteristics  already 
introduced. 

Upon  beginning  the  chapter  before  us,  we  were 
thinking  of  John  Opie,  the  distinguished  English 
painter,  born  in  Cornwall  in  1761.  When  Opie  was 
only  ten  years  of  age  ^  he  saw  a  person  who  was  some- 
what accomplished  with  the  pencil  draw  a  butterfly. 
The  boy  watched  the  process  with  marked  interest, 
and  as  soon  as  the  draughtsman  had  departed,  pro- 
duced upon  a  shingle  a  drawing  equally  good,  which  he 
showed  to  his  mother.     She,  good  woman,  encouraged 

1  "  I  first  discovered  Opie,"  says  Dr.  Wolcott,  "  in  a  little  hovel 
in  the  Parish  of  St.  Agnes,  Cornwall.  He  was  the  son  of  a  poor 
sawyer.  I  was  first  led  to  notice  him  by  some  drawings  which  he 
had  made."  The  good  Doctor  gave  him  material  aid,  took  him  to 
his  house,  and  finally  introduced  him  into  London  society. 


248        GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

him,  as  Mrs.  West  did  her  son  on  a  similar  occasion  ; 
but  the  father,  being  a  harsh,  rude,  low-bred  man, 
was  constantly  punishing  the  boy  for  laziness,  and 
for  chalking  figures,  faces,  and  animals  on  every 
stray  bit  of  board  or  flat  surface  at  hand.  The  boy 
had  genius,  however ;  what  he  required  was  opportu- 
nity. Good  fortune  sent  Dr.  Wolcott,  better  known 
as  "  Peter  Pindar,"  that  way.  He  saw  the  boy's 
dawning  genius,  and  helped  him  with  suitable  material 
and  some  useful  suggestions.  It  was  not  long  before 
the  lad  got  away  from  home,  quietly  aided  by  his 
good  friend  Wolcott,  and  soon  earned  money  enough 
to  clothe  himself  decently  and  to  make  a  start  in  life. 
He  finally  married  Amelia,  daughter  of  James  Alder- 
son,  who  afterwards  became  the  well-known  authoress 
Amelia  Opie.  The  husband  developed  into  a  distin- 
guished artist,  whose  historical  pictures, "  The  Death  of 
Rizzio  "  and  "  Jephthah's  Vow,"  were  stepping-stones 
to  his  election  as  President  of  the  Royal  Academy. 
Does  not  this  truthful  sketch  from  life,  of  a  poor  wood- 
sawyer's  son,  read  like  romance  ? 

Genius  will  assert  itself ;  it  seems  useless  to  strive 
against  it.  The  secret  suggestions  of  the  soul  are 
true,  lead  us  whither  they  will.  Salvator  Rosa  was 
the  son  of  a  poor  architect  who  made  ineffectual 
efforts  to  thwart  his  son's  predilection  for  art,  but  all 
in  vain.  The  young  man,  finding  that  he  could  not 
hope  for  any  assistance  from  his  father,  strove  all  the 
harder  to  earn  a  livelihood  by  painting,  but  nearly 
starved  before  he  reached  his  majority.     About  this 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.       249 

time  the  patrons  of  art  in  Rome  offered  a  grand  prize 
for  the  best  painting  to  be  submitted  at  an  exhibition 
to  be  held  in  the  Eternal  City.  The  young  Neapolitan 
saw  his  chance,  and  painted  a  picture  into  which  he 
infused  all  the  glowing  spirit  of  the  art  which  burned 
within  him.  If  it  failed,  he  resolved  that  no  one  should 
know  aught  of  its  authorship.  It  was  forwarded 
anonymously,  and  received  the  recognition  of  being 
hung  in  the  most  favorable  position.  That  picture 
took  the  grand  prize,  the  unknown  artist  being  lauded 
as  above  Titian.  Nought  was  to  be  heard  for  it  but 
praise.  This  decided  the  fate  of  Rosa.  He  left  his 
humble  home  near  Naples  and  settled  in  Rome,  where 
he  secured  the  friendship  and  intimacy  of  the  greatest 
men  of  the  day. 

Numerous  and  grand  were  the  pictures  sent  forth 
from  Rosa's  hand  ;  orders  pressed  upon  him  faster 
than  he  could  fill  them,  and  thus  he  stepped  at  once 
into  the  highest  contemporary  fame  and  fortune.^ 
"  Salvator  possessed  real  genius,"  says  Ruskin,  "  but 
was  crushed  by  misery  in  his  youth."  He  was  not  only 
a  painter,  but  also  a  poet  and  a  musician ;  nearly  all 
cultured  Italians  are  the  latter.  At  the  grand  Carni- 
val of  the  year  1639  there  appeared  upon  the  Corso 

1  He  fought  under  Masaniello,  and  after  the  final  defeat  at 
Naples  he  escaped  to  Florence,  where  he  was  befriended  by  the 
Grand  Duke,  who  was  a  liberal  patron  of  art.  His  masterpiece  is 
considered  to  be  the  "  Conspiracy  of  Catiline,"  though  he  excelled 
in  wild  mountain  scenery  rather  than  in  the  grouping  of  human 
figures. 


250         GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

and  in  the  squares  of  Rome  an  actor  of  fantastic  dress, 
who  was  marked  like  all  the  other  revellers  on  such 
occasions,  but  whose  name  was  given  as  one  Formica, 
of  Southern  Italy.  He  attracted  both  public  and  pri- 
vate attention  by  his  brilliant  wit,  his  eloquence,  and 
especially  by  his  songs,  as  he  accompanied  himself  on 
the  lute.  He  was  the  hero  of  the  Carnival  of  that 
season.  By  and  by  the  appointed  hour  arrived  when 
all  the  revellers  unmasked,  and  lo !  the  stranger 
proved  to  be  Salvator  Rosa. 

Among  painters,  Rubens  is  one  of  the  greatest  and 
most  familiar  names,  though  Ruskin  disparages  him 
by  saying  that  "  he  is  a  healthy,  worthy,  kind-hearted, 
courtly-phrased  animal,  without  any  clearly  percepti- 
ble traces  of  a  soul,  except  when  he  paints  children." 
Rubens  became  an  artist  from  love  of  art,  and  his 
career  was  one  in  which  there  was  far  more  of  sun- 
shine than  usually  falls  to  the  lot  of  genius.  He  throve 
greatly  in  a  business  point  of  view  as  well  as  in  art, 
and  became  a  man  of  wealth  in  his  native  city  of 
Antwerp,  where  he  built  a  comfortable  house  and 
adorned  it  inside  with  pencil  and  brush  —  the  whole, 
as  he  estimated  it,  worth  about  a  thousand  pounds  ster- 
ling. Presently  there  came  to  Antwerp  the  Duke  of 
Buckingham,  who  coveted  the  artist's  house.  A  nego- 
tiation was  opened,  and  Rubens  sold  it  to  the  Duke 
for  twelve  times  what  it  cost,  or  say  in  our  currency 
sixty  thousand  dollars. 

Rubens  must  have  possessed  wonderful  industry,  as 
we  judge  by  the  fact  that  a  hundred  of  his  paintings  may 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        251 

be  found  in  the  Munich  Gallery  alone,  not  to  mention 
those  contained  in  other  European  collections.  Un- 
doubtedly his  "  Descent  from  the  Cross,"  now  in  the 
Antwerp  Cathedral,  is  his  grandest  work.  Our  artist 
was  by  no  means  without  his  vein  of  vanity,  as  evinced 
by  the  family  picture  which  he  painted,  and  in  which 
he  gives  himself  due  prominence.  This  picture  is 
placed  just  above  his  tomb,  back  of  the  altar,  in  the 
Church  of  St.  Jacques,  at  Antwerp.  The  presump- 
tuousness  is  increased  by  the  fact  that  the  combined 
portraits  of  his  first  and  second  wife,  his  daughter, 
with  his  father,  grandfather,  and  himself,  are  intended 
to  represent  a  Holy  Family,  and  the  painting  is  typi- 
cal of  that  idea.  The  whole  is  incongruous  and  in 
bad  taste.  Vandyke,  Teniers,  and  Denis  Calvart,  the 
instructor  of  Guide  Reni,  were  all  natives  of  Antwerp. 
The  city  owes  its  attraction  to  travellers  almost  solely 
to  the  fact  that  here  are  so  many  masterpieces  of 
painting. 

William  Hogarth  was  a  great  and  original  genius, 
who  wrote  comedies  pictorially,  satirized  vice,  and  de- 
picted all  phases  of  life  more  in  detail  than  is  possible 
with  the  pen.  He  was  early  apprenticed  to  a  silver- 
smith ;  but  the  natural  bent  of  his  genius  was  too 
apparent  and  promising  not  to  be  encouraged  by  the 
study  of  art.  In  the  dramatic  and  satirical  depart- 
ments of  design  he  has  never  been  excelled.  It  has 
been  objected  that  his  pictures  are  vulgar ;  but  when 
we  remember  the  period  in  which  they  appeared,  and 
also  the  fact  that  they  undoubtedly  convey  useful 


252         GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

lessons  of  morality,  we  shall  find  ample  excuse  if  not 
commendation  for  the  artist.  In  1753  he  published 
his  "  Analysis  of  Beauty,"  in  which  he  maintains  that 
a  waving  line  is  essential  to  beauty.  Hogarth  com- 
posed comedies  just  as  much  as  did  Moliere.  It  was 
a  singular  characteristic  of  this  able  designer  and 
artist  that  he  could  not  successfully  illustrate  another's 
work ;  he  is  known  utterly  to  have  failed  in  the  at- 
tempt, though  never  in  the  successful  illustration  of 
his  own  ideas.  Hogarth  was  also  a  historian,  inas- 
much as  every  picture  he  produced  represented  the 
manners  and  customs  of  the  period.  The  interior 
scenes  give  us  the  exact  style  of  the  furniture  and 
minutest  domestic  surroundings ;  while  out  of  doors 
we  have  all  the  various  modes  of  conveyance  in  use, 
and  a  faithful  picture  of  the  street  architecture. 
Hogarth  died  in  1764. 

James  Spencer,  who  was  a  personal  friend  of  Ho- 
garth, began  life  as  a  London  footman ;  but  the  genius 
of  an  artist  was  born  in  him,  and  it  gradually  forced 
its  way  to  the  front.  At  odd  moments  he  practised 
drawing  and  even  painting  with  oils,  whenever  and 
wherever  he  could  seize  upon  a  brief  chance.  It 
happened  that  a  professional  portrait-painter  was  en- 
gaged to  make  a  portrait  of  the  head  of  the  family 
where  Spencer  had  long  acted  as  footman.  When 
the  likeness  was  finished,  he  heard  his  master  ex- 
press some  just  dissatisfaction  at  its  want  of  resem- 
blance to  the  original.  Spencer  very  humbly  asked 
permission  of  his  master  to  copy  the  painting  and 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW        253 

see  if  he  could  not  get  a  good  likeness.  After  ex- 
pressing some  astonishment  at  the  request,  his  master 
assented.  In  a  much  briefer  period  than  the  first 
artist  occupied,  and  without  a  single  sitting  on  the 
part  of  his  employer,  Spencer  astonished  the  family 
by  producing  not  only  a  remarkable  likeness,  but  an 
entirely  satisfactory  painting.  With  such  a  start  the 
footman  became  a  professional  portrait-painter,  and 
accumulated  the  means  ere  long  to  set  up  a  fine 
London  establishment. 

In  an  earlier  part  of  this  volume  we  gave  numerous 
instances  of  genius  being  at  its  best  in  early  youth, 
when,  as  Burke  says,  "  the  senses  are  unworn  and 
tender,  and  the  whole  frame  is  awake  in  every  part." 
Of  this  early  development  we  know  of  no  more  strik- 
ing instance  in  art  than  that  of  Sir  Thomas  Lawrence, 
who  at  the  age  of  ten  years  surpassed  most  of  the 
London  portrait-painters  both  in  his  certain  like- 
nesses and  in  the  general  effect  of  his  portraits.  He 
was  a  remarkable  genius,  and  for  a  considerable  period 
was  the  talk  of  all  London.^  Added  to  his  ability  as 
an  artist,  young  Lawrence  was  remarkably  handsome. 
Prince  Hoare  saw  something  so  angelic  in  his  face 
that  he   desired  to  paint  him  in  the   character  of 

^  Haydon,  the  historical  painter,  had  power  but  not  popularity. 
Sir  Arthur  Shea,  a  man  who  rose  to  the  height  of  his  profession 
as  regarded  popularity,  was  Haydon's  special  aversion.  "  He  is," 
Haydon  once  began,  "  the  most  impotent  painter  in  — "  His 
listeners  supposed  he  would  add  "  the  world."  That  did  not 
satisfy  Haydon's  antipathy,  and  his  conclusion  was,  —  "in  the 
solar  system ! " 


254        GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

Christ.  In  about  seven  minutes  Lawrence  scarcely 
ever  failed  of  producing  in  crayon  an  excellent  likeness 
of  any  person  present,  and  in  a  manner  expressive  of 
both  grace  and  freedom.  He  succeeded  Sir  Joshua 
Reynolds,  in  due  time,  as  first  painter  to  the  king, 
was  knighted  in  1815,  and  five  years  later  became 
President  of  the  Royal  Academy. 

To  realize  imder  what  shadows  many  an  artist 
has  lived,  worked,  and  died,  yet  who  is  known  to  us 
of  the  highest  genius,  we  have  only  to  recall  some 
familiar  names.  Correggio  was  of  very  humble  birth : 
and  though  one  of  the  most  original  of  all  the  bril- 
liant masters  of  the  sixteenth  century,  he  enjoyed 
little  contemporary  fame.  His  works  to-day  are  held 
at  as  high  a  valuation  as  those  of  Raphael,  Titian,  or 
Murillo.i  His  modesty  was  characteristic;  his  pre- 
tension, nothing.  His  pictures  speak  for  him,  and 
exhibit  the  softness,  tenderness,  and  harmony  of  his 
nature.  Nearly  all  his  work  was  done  at  his  native 
city  of  Correggio  and  at  Parma;  nor  is  he  believed 
ever  to  have  visited  Rome.  It  was  he  who,  after 
gazing  on  one  of  Raphael's  finest  productions,  ex- 
claimed, "  I  also  am  a  painter ! " 

Correggio  was  chosen  by  the  canons  of  the  cathe- 
dral at  Parma  to  paint  for  them  the  "  Assumption  of 

1  Many  of  our  readers  will  remember  a  remarkable  picture  by 
Correggio  in  the  Dresden  Gallery,  representing  a  "  Penitent  Mag- 
dalen," the  ineflfable  and  almost  di\ane  beauty  of  -which  no  one 
can  fail  to  appreciate.  One  of  the  Saxon  kings  paid  six  thousand 
louis-d'ors  (|30,000)  for  this  painting,  which  is  only  about  eigh- 
teen inches  square.    Twice  that  sum  would  not  purchase  it  to-day. 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        255 

the  Virgin."  It  was  a  subject  well  fitted  to  his  style, 
and  his  conception  and  execution  of  the  painting  were 
beyond  criticism.  It  may  be  seen,  mellowed  by  age, 
in  the  Parma  Cathedral  to-day.  When  the  work  was 
done,  the  priests  meanly  haggled  and  found  fault  with 
it,  in  order  to  reduce  the  price,  which  had  been  pre- 
viously agreed  upon.  Finally,  they  only  paid  the  artist 
half  the  promised  sum,  stealing  the  balance  to  supply 
their  secret  luxuries.  To  add  insult  to  their  mean- 
ness, the  priests  paid  the  artist  the  price  in  copper 
coin.  He  could  not  refuse  the  money,  for  his  poverty- 
stricken  family  awaited  his  return  with  it  to  supply 
their  pressing  needs.  Correggio  took  the  heavy  bur- 
den on  his  shoulders  and  bore  it  two  leagues  and 
more,  under  a  broiling  Italian  sun,  to  reach  his  home. 
On  arriving  there  he  was  completely  exhausted,  and 
drank  freely  of  the  water  his  children  brought  to 
him  ;  then,  disheartened  at  his  ill-fortune  and  broken 
down  by  fatigue,  he  went  sadly  to  his  rude  bed, 
to  awake  on  the  following  morning  in  a  burning 
fever  and  delirious.  In  two  days  Correggio  was 
no  more. 

The  development  of  the  genius  which  slept  in  the 
soul  of  Canova  when  a  lad  was  brought  about  by  a 
happy  accident.  A  superb  banquet  was  preparing  in 
the  palace  of  the  Falieri  family  at  Venice.  The  tables 
were  already  arranged,  when  it  was  discovered  that 
a  crowning  ornament  of  some  sort  was  required  to 
complete  the  general  effect  of  the  banqueting  board. 
Canova's  grandfather,  who   brought  him  up,  was  a 


25G         GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

stone-cutter,  often  hewing  out  stone  ornaments  for 
the  architects ;  and  as  he  lived  close  at  hand,  he  was 
hastily  consulted  by  the  steward  of  the  Falieris. 
Canova  chanced  to  go  with  his  grandfather  to  view 
the  tables,  and  overheard  the  consultation.  His  quick 
eye  and  ready  genius  at  once  suggested  a  suitable  de- 
sign for  the  apex  of  the  principal  dishes.  "  Give  me 
a  plate  of  cold  butter,"  said  the  boy ;  and  seating  him- 
self at  a  side  table  he  rapidly  moulded  a  lion  of  proper 
proportions,  and  so  true  to  nature  in  its  pose  and 
detail  as  to  astonish  all  present.  It  was  put  in  place, 
and  proved  to  be  the  most  striking  ornamental  ar- 
ticle there.  When  the  guests  were  seated  and  dis- 
covered it,  they  exclaimed  aloud  with  admiration, 
and  demanded  to  see  at  once  the  person  who  could 
perform  such  a  miracle  impromptu.  Canova  was 
brought  before  them,  and  his  boyish  person  only 
heightened  their  wonder.  From  that  hour  he  had 
in  the  head  of  this  opulent  family  a  kind,  appre- 
ciative, and  liberal  patron.  He  was  placed  under 
tuition  with  the  best  sculptors  of  Venice  and  Rome, 
to  study  the  art  of  which  he  finally  became  a  grand 
master.^ 

The  story  of  Spagnoletto  is  a  romantic  one,  and  not 
without  a  vivid  moral.     Of  such  humble  birth  was  he, 

^  Canova  executed  a  statue  of  Washington,  which  ornaments 
the  State  House  in  Boston,  and  is  known  to  have  produced  during 
his  life  fifty  statues  and  as  many  busts,  besides  numerous  groups 
in  marble.  He  died  in  1822,  having  the  reputation  of  being  the 
greatest  sculptor  of  his  age. 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        257 

that  nothing  is  said  of  it  by  himself  or  his  friends. 
Ho  suffered  the  very  extreme  of  poverty ;  but  feeling 
a  deep  love  for  art,  and  a  consciousness  within  him 
that  he  was  born  to  be  a  painter,  he  pursued  this  pur- 
pose through  besetting  difficulties  for  years.  He  still 
felt  within  him  a  power  of  genius  superior  to  all  and 
every  disadvantage  which  he  encountered.  He  was 
Spanish  by  birth,  but  made  his  way  on  foot  to  Rome, 
where  he  worked  for  his  daily  bread  at  anything 
which  offered,  and  for  many  months  was  employed 
as  a  street  porter,  but  at  the  same  time  followed  the 
study  of  art  in  his  humble  way.  One  day  a  cardinal 
passing  in  his  carriage  saw  in  the  streets  a  ragged  per- 
son painting  a  board  affixed  to  an  ordinary  house  of 
Rome.  The  young  man's  wretchedness  attracted  his 
attention.  It  was  Spagnoletto  earning  wherewith  to 
purchase  a  loaf  of  bread.  The  cardinal  questioned 
him,  took  him  home  to  his  palace  and  gave  him  every 
luxury  he  desired,  as  well  as  the  means  to  pursue 
his  beloved  art.  For  a  brief  time  all  was  well,  and 
the  art  student  made  great  progress ;  but,  alas !  the 
nature  which  could  withstand  the  frowns  of  fortune 
wilted  beneath  her  smiles,  and  pleasure  thoroughly 
seduced  the  youth  by  her  tempting  wiles.  He  became 
a  slave  to  the  senses,  neglected  art  entirely,  and  was 
fast  going  to  ruin.  One  night  Spagnoletto  had  a 
dream ;  it  was  the  midnight  visit  of  his  better  angel, 
and  she  prevailed.  He  awoke  the  next  morning  de- 
termined to  leave  the  cardinal's  palace  with  all  its 
luxuries  behind  him,  to  resume  his  former  condition 

17 


258         GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

and  industry.  He  worked  his  way  to  Naples,  and  by 
degrees  rose  steadily  in  art  until  he  cast  off  his  rags 
and  was  independent.  He  furnished  so  perfect  a 
painting  of  Saint  Ijartholomew  stripped  to  the  muscles, 
that  it  became  a  valued  study  for  anatomists,  and  from 
that  day  his  fame  was  assured.  His  pictures  were 
eagerly  sought  for,  and  to-day  they  adorn  the  best 
European  galleries.^  As  Salvator  Rosa,  the  Italian 
artist,  deliglited  most  in  depicting  wild,  rugged  moun- 
tain scenery  and  battles,  so  Spagnoletto,  the  Spanish 
painter,  was  most  at  home  with  martyrdoms,  execu- 
tions, and  tragic  scenes  generally.  He  died  at  Naples 
in  1656. 

Genius  is  confined  to  no  line  of  art,  to  no  special 
profession ;  we  find  its  exponents  in  the  legislative 
hall,  in  the  pulpit,  and  on  the  stage.  Garrick  was 
undoubtedly  one  of  the  greatest  geniuses  of  the  Eng- 
lish stage  ;  he  was  not  only  an  actor,  but  a  successful 
dramatic  author.  He  married  a  Viennese  danseuse, 
and  so  far  as  the  world  knows  was  happy  in  his  do- 
mestic relations.  He  was  equally  at  home  in  tragedy 
and  comedy,  possessing  in  a  most  marvellous  degree 
the  art  of  imitating  the  physiognomy  of  others  and 
the  manner  of  expressing  their  various  emotions.  It 
is  said  of  him  that  he  could  imitate  anything,  bird 

^  Spagnoletto  was  finally  appointed  court  painter  in  Spain,  and 
some  of  his  best  paintings  still  adom  the  Madrid  Gallery.  His 
"  Adoration  of  the  Shepherds  "  is  familiar  to  us  all,  and  remains 
unsurpassed  in  power  of  conception  and  execution.  In  the  Madrid 
Museo  is  another  of  his  masterpieces,  a  "  Mater  Dolorosa." 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        259 

or  beast,  both  in  voice  and  manner.  On  the  occasion 
of  a  grand  dinner-party  in  London,  at  a  certain  lord's, 
Garrick  was  a  guest ;  in  the  course  of  the  entertain- 
ment he  "was  suddenly  missed,  and  at  last  was  discov- 
ered in  the  garden  belonging  to  the  house,  where  a 
young  negro  boy  was  rolling  on  the  ground  convulsed 
with  screams  of  laughter  to  see  Garrick  mimicking  a 
turkey-cock  that  was  strutting  about  in  the  enclosure. 
The  actor  had  his  coat-tail  stuck  out  behind,  and  was  in 
a  seeming  flutter  of  feathered  rage  and  pride.^  Garrick 
declared  that  he  would  cheerfully  give  a  hundred 
guineas  if  he  could  say  "  Oh  ! "  as  Whitfield  did.  A 
noble  friend  wished  him  to  be  a  candidate  for  Parlia- 
ment. "  No,  my  lord,"  said  the  actor,  sincerely  ;  "  I 
would  rather  play  the  part  of  great  men  on  the  stage, 
than  the  part  of  fool  in  Parliament."  ^  He  accumu- 
lated a  large  fortune,  stated  at  over  a  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  pounds.  He  died  in  1779,  and  was  buried 
with  such  pomp  as  is  awarded  only  to  those  who  are 
considered  national  characters.  His  ashes  rest  beside 
the  tomb  of  Shakspeare  in  Westminster  Abbey. 

1  "  Mr.  Murphy,  sir,  you  knew  Mr.  Garrick  1 "  asked  Rogers 
the  poet  of  that  individual.  "  Yes,  air,  I  did,  and  no  man  better." 
"  Well,  sir,  what  did  you  think  of  his  acting  ?  "  After  a  pause  : 
"  Well,  sir,  off  the  stage  he  was  a  mean,  sneaking  little  fellow. 
But  on  the  stage  "  —  throwing  up  his  hands  and  eyes  —  "  oh, 
my  great  God  ! " 

^  In  the  broad  grounds  of  Abington  Abbey,  in  Northampton- 
shire, stands  Garrick's  mulberry-tree,  with  this  inscription  upon 
copper  attached  to  one  of  the  limbs :  "  This  tree  was  planted  by 
David  Garrick,  Esq.,  at  the  request  of  Ann  Thursby,  as  a  growing 
testimony  of  their  friendship,  1778." 


260        GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

Moore  mentions  having  seen  that  excellent  comic 
genius  John  Liston  behind  the  scenes  in  a  towering 
rage  about  some  trifle,  while  he  was  dressed  and 
"  made  up  "  for  the  part  of  Rigdum  Funidos,  —  a  con- 
trast which  must  have  been  as  ludicrous  as  when 
Washington  Irving  met  Grimaldi  in  a  furious  rage 
behind  the  curtain,  with  the  regular  stage  grin  painted 
on  his  cheeks.  Liston  began  his  profession  in  tragic 
parts  and  developed  his  wonderful  comic  powers  by 
chance,  being  suddenly  called  upon  one  evening  to 
fill  the  low  comedian's  place  on  account  of  the  illness 
of  the  actor  cast  for  the  part.  He  made  a  hit  at  once, 
such  as  he  had  not  dreamed  of,  and  it  was  seen  by 
every  one  that  he  was  naturally  a  comic  actor.  On 
the  occasion  referred  to,  by  the  exercise  of  his  extraor- 
dinary facial  powers  he  caused  the  spectators  and 
actors,  until  the  curtain  fell  on  the  closing  scene,  to 
roar  with  laughter,  though  but  very  little  of  the  text 
had  been  audible  to  them.  True  genius  loses  itself  in 
the  character  and  the  subject.  Betterton,  when  he 
performed  Hamlet,  by  reason  of  the  violent  and  sud- 
den emotion  of  amazement  and  horror  at  the  presence 
of  his  father's  spectre,  absolutely  turned  as  white  as 
his  neckcloth,  although  his  natural  cast  of  countenance 
was  very  florid,  while  his  whole  body  seemed  affected 
by  an  uncontrollable  tremor.  Had  his  father's  appa- 
rition indeed  risen  before  him,  he  could  not  have  been 
seized  with  more  real  agonies.  When  a  well-known 
actor  of  that  period, named  Booth,  first  took  the  part  of 
the  ghost,  Betterton  acted  Hamlet ;  on  which  occasion 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        261 

his  extraordinary  look  struck  Booth  with  such  horror 
that  for  a  moment  he  remained  silent,  having  forgotten 
his  part.^ 

Samuel  Foote,  the  witty  English  comedian,  was  one 
of  the  vainest  of  geniuses.  "  For  loud,  obstreperous, 
broad-faced  mirth,"  said  Dr.  Johnson,  "  I  know  not 
his  equal."  Foote  sought  the  stage  to  earn  thereby 
a  living  after  squandering  his  fortune  at  gaming  and 
other  vices.  When  visiting  in  the  country,  his  vanity 
led  him  to  boast  of  his  horsemanship,  an  accomplish- 
ment of  which  he  knew  little  or  nothing ;  and  when  in- 
vited by  Lord  Mexborough  to  join  the  hunt,  he  could 
not  decently  decline.  The  consequence  was  that  at  the 
first  burst  he  was  thrown  and  broke  his  leg  in  two 
places,  so  that  amputation  was  necessary.  However, 
he  managed  to  play  nearly  as  well  with  a  cork  leg. 
To  some  one  who  made  a  reflection  upon  his  "  game  " 
leg,  Foote  replied  promptly  :  "  Make  no  allusion  to 
my  weakest  part.  Did  I  ever  attack  your  head  ?  " 
Garrick,  observing  that  Foote  had  placed  a  plaster  bust 
of  him  in  his  entry,  remarked,  "  You  are  not  afraid, 
I  see,  to  trust  me  near  your  gold  and  bank-notes." 
"  No,"  retorted  the  humorist,  "  you  have  no  hands  !  " 
Foote  was  considered  by  his  contemporaries  the  greatest 
master  of  comic  humor  after  Moliere.  One  day  Foote, 
Garrick,  and  Dr.  Johnson  went  together  to  Bedlam,  — 
a  hospital  in  London  for  the  insane.     Johnson,  who 

^  Pope  was  younger  than  Betterton,  but  they  were  very  warm 
personal  friends,  and  it  is  thought  that  the  poet  aided  the  actor  in 
the  adaptations  which  he  published  from  Chaucer,  and  for  which 
he  received  hearty  if  not  merited  commendation. 


262        GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

was  much  affected  at  the  sight  of  so  much  human  mis- 
ery, got  into  a  corner  by  himself  to  meditate,  and  in 
the  progress  of  his  mood  he  threw  himself  into  so  many 
strange  attitudes,  and  drew  his  face  into  such  odd 
shapes,  that  Foote  whispered  mysteriously  to  Garrick 
to  ask  how  they  should  contrive  to  get  him  out  I 

Of  the  moral  character  of  Nell  Gwynn,  who  was  a 
favorite  London  actress  and  a  mistress  of  Charles  II., 
the  less  said  the  better ;  and  yet  she  was  not  entirely 
void  of  good  impulses,  for  it  is  well  known  that  she 
persuaded  the  king  to  establish  and  endow  Chelsea 
Hospital.  But  of  Bracegirdle,  the  beautiful  actress 
who  captivated  all  hearts,  and  whom  Congreve  was 
thought  nearly  to  worship,  not  a  word  reflecting  upon 
her  moral  character  could  be  truthfully  uttered.  At 
a  London  coffee-house  one  evening  there  chanced  to 
be  gathered  a  score  or  more  of  her  admirers,  including 
the  Dukes  of  Devonshire  and  Dorset,  besides  other 
members  of  the  peerage.  Bracegirdle's  name  had 
been  mentioned ;  when  Lord  Halifax  said  :  "  You  all 
of  you  praise  the  virtue  of  this  lady ;  why  not  reward 
her  for  not  selling  it  ?  There  are  two  hundred  guineas 
pour  encourager  les  autres.^'  A  thousand  guineas 
were  raised  on  the  spot,  which  the  noblemen  took  to 
Bracegirdle,  going  into  her  presence  in  a  body.  As 
it  was  a  testimony  intended  in  honor  of  her  virtue, 
she  accepted  it.  No  doubt  a  large  portion  of  this 
handsome  tribute  found  its  way  very  quickly  into  the 
hands  of  her  needy  pensioners ;  for  she  was  no  more 
estimable  in  her  profession  than  noble  in  her  charities. 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.       263 

The  best  dramatists  wrote  for  her ;  and  two  of  them, 
Rowe  and  Congreve,  when  they  gave  her  a  lover  in  a 
play  seemed  palpably  to  plead  their  own  passions  and 
to  make  their  individual  court  to  her  in  fictitious 
characters. 

Having  spoken  of  Nell  Gwynn  and  Bracegirdle, 
another  English  actress,  Margaret  WofFington,  comes 
forcibly  to  mind  ;  and  though  we  do  not  propose  to 
treat  especially  the  profession  of  the  drama,  the  inci- 
dental mention  of  some  of  its  members  in  this  gossip 
is  not  out  of  place.  Her  father  was  an  Irish  brick- 
layer in  Dublin,  where  Peg  Woffington,  as  she  was 
best  known,  was  a  great  public  favorite  long  before 
she  came  to  London  to  find  an  equally  agreeable 
home.  Her  versatility  of  genius  may  be  judged  of 
from  the  fact  of  her  personating  Lady  Macbeth  and 
Sir  Harry  Wildare  with  equal  excellence.  The  latter 
character  was  a  favorite  one  with  Garrick,  but  he 
gave  up  the  part  altogether  after  witnessing  her  ex- 
cellence in  its  assumption.^  She  also  was  distin- 
guished for  her  benevolence  and  open-handed  charity. 
The  manager  of  Covent  Garden  Theatre  could  always 
be  sure  of  a  full  house  when  he  announced  her  in  the 
character  of  the  gay,  dissipated,  good-humored  rake, 
Sir  Harry  Wildare.  Margaret  built  and  endowed  two 
almshouses  at  Teddington,  Middlesex,  and  lies  buried 

^  Garrick  was  for  a  long  time  at  her  feet,  and  indeed  was  at 
one  time  engaged  to  be  married  to  her,  but  the  nuptials  were  not 
consummated.  It  was  generally  believed  that  the  engagement 
was  broken  from  disinclination  on  her  part. 


264         GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

in  the  principal  church  of  the  district.  In  the  height 
of  her  popularity  she  declared  that  she  preferred  the 
society  of  men  to  that  of  women ;  tlie  latter,  she  said, 
"talk  of  nothing  but  silks  and  scandal."  Her  end 
was  singularly  dramatic.  She  was  playing  the  charac- 
ter of  Rosalind  with  more  than  usual  ^clat,  when  she 
was  struck  with  paralysis,  and  died  soon  after  in  the 
prime  of  life.^ 

We  have  spoken  of  accident  as  often  determining 
the  development  and  directing  the  course  of  genius. 
Edward  Shuter  was  one  of  the  most  popular  come- 
dians on  the  London  stage  in  1776,  but  he  began  life 
as  a  pot-boy  at  a  public-house  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Covent  Grarden.  A  gentleman  came  to  the  house 
one  evening,  and  after  refreshing  himself  he  sent  the 
boy  Shuter  to  call  him  a  hackney-coach.  On  reaching 
home  he  found  that  he  had  dropped  his  pocket-book  ; 
and  suspecting  that  he  had  lost  it  in  the  coach,  he 
went  the  next  morning  to  the  tavern  to  make  inquiry. 
He  asked  Shuter  if  he  knew  the  number  of  the  hack. 
The  poor  boy  could  not  read  or  write,  and  was  totally 
unskilled  in  numerals ;  but  he  knew  the  signs  by  which 
his  master  scored  the  quarts  and  pints  of  porter 
that  were  drunk,  and  to  the  gentleman's  inquiry  as 
to  the  number  of  the  coach  which  the  boy  had  called 

^  During  the  vacation  season  Miss  WofSngton  went  to  Bath, 
and  on  her  return  was  telling  Quin  how  much  she  had  been 
pleased  by  the  excursion.  "  And  pray,  madam,"  he  inquired, 
"  what  made  you  go  to  Bath  ?  "  "  Mere  wantoimess,"  she  replied. 
"  And  pray,  madam,  did  it  cure  you  ?  " 


GENIUS  IX  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.       265 

for  him  Shuter  said  it  was  "two  pots  and  a  pint" 
(771).  This  was  unintelhgible  to  the  gentleman,  but 
was  explained  by  the  landlord.  The  coachman  was 
summoned,  and  the  pocket-book  recovered.  This 
acuteness  of  the  boy  interested  the  gentleman,  and  he 
became  his  patron,  sent  him  to  school,  and  gave  him 
a  start  in  the  line  of  his  choice,  which  was  the  theat- 
rical profession.  Such  is  the  story  in  brief  of  one  of 
the  famous  London  comedians. 

How  many  of  our  readers  remember  the  one  re- 
corded scene  when  Queen  Elizabeth  condescended  to 
coquet  with  Shakspeare  ?  The  great  bard  was  per- 
forming the  part  of  a  king ;  Elizabeth's  box  was  con- 
tiguous to  the  stage,  and  she  purposely  dropped  her 
handkerchief  from  the  box  upon  the  boards,  at  the 
very  feet  of  Shakspeare,  having  a  mind  thus  to  try 
whether  her  poet  would  stoop  from  his  high  estate  of 
assumed  majesty.  "  Take  up  our  sister's  handker- 
chief," was  his  prompt  and  dignified  order  to  one  of 
the  actors  in  his  train. 

It  will  doubtless  be  found  interesting  to  see  recorded 
in  juxtaposition  the  words  and  the  manner  of  death 
of  some  of  the  great  geniuses  whom  history  mentions. 
When  Alonzo  Cano,  the  famous  Spanish  artist,  was 
dying,  the  attendant  priest  presented  before  him  an 
ivory  crucifix ;  Cano  turned  away  and  refused  to  look 
at  it  because  the  sculpture  was  so  bad,  calling  for  a 
plain  cross,  which  he  embraced,  and  died.  Chaucer 
breathed  his  last  while  composing  a  ballad.     When 


266         GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

the  priest  came  whom  Alfieri  had  been  prevailed 
upon  to  see,  he  requested  him  to  call  the  next  day. 
"  Death,  I  trust,  will  tarry  four-and-twenty  hours," 
he  said,  but  died  in  the  interim.  Petrarch  was  found 
dead  in  his  library,  leaning  on  a  book.  "  I  could  wish 
this  tragic  scene  were  over,"  said  Quin  the  actor, 
"  but  I  hope  to  go  through  it  with  becoming  dignity." 
Pitt,  the  great  statesman,  died  alone,  in  a  solitary 
house  on  "Wimbledon  Common.  Rousseau,  when  dy- 
ing, asked  to  be  carried  to  the  window  of  the  apart- 
ment overlooking  his  garden,  that  he  might  look  his 
last  on  Nature. 

When  Malherbe  the  lyric  poet  was  dying,  he  repri- 
manded his  nurse  for  making  use  of  a  solecism  in  her 
language,  and  bade  the  priest  stop  his  trite,  cant  talk 
about  heaven,  saying,  "  Your  wretched  style  only 
makes  me  out  of  conceit  with  it."  Bide,  the  English 
monk  and  author,  on  the  night  of  his  death  continued 
to  dictate  to  his  amanuensis.  He  asked  his  scribe 
how  many  chapters  yet  remained  to  complete  the 
work,  and  was  told  there  was  one.  "  Take  your  pen," 
he  commanded,  and  went  on  with  the  work.  By 
and  by  the  scribe  said,  "  It  is  finished,"  just  as  his 
master  breathed  his  last.  Roscommon,  when  expir- 
ing, quoted  from  his  own  translation  of  the  "  Dies 
Irae."  "  All  my  possessions  for  a  moment  of  time  ! " 
were  the  dying  words  of  Queen  Elizabeth.  The  last 
words  of  Cardinal  Beaufort  were,  "  "What !  is  there 
no  bribing  death  ? "  The  last  words  uttered  by  Byron 
were,  "  I  must   sleep  now."     In  his   last   moments 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.       267 

Crdbillon,  who  had  composed  two  acts  of  his  tragedy 
of  "  Catiline,"  regretted  that  he  had  not  been  spared 
to  complete  it. 

Colorden  on  the  day  of  his  death  was  visited  by  his 
friend  Barthe,  who  requested  his  opinion  of  the  comedy 
of  the  "  Selfish  Man,"  which  he  came  to  read  at  his 
bedside.  "You  may  add  an  excellent  trait  to  the 
character  of  your  principal  personage,"  said  Colorden. 
"  Say  that  he  obliged  an  old  friend,  on  the  eve  of  his 
death,  to  hear  him  read  a  five-act  comedy  !  "  "  Let 
me  die  to  the  sound  of  delicious  music,"  were  the 
last  words  of  Mirabeau.  Herder  died  writing  an  ode 
to  the  Deity,  his  pen  on  the  last  line.  Heller  died 
feeling  his  own  pulse ;  and  when  he  found  it  almost 
gone,  turning  his  eyes  to  his  brother  physician,  said, 
"  My  friend,  the  artery  ceases  to  beat ! "  "  Tell  Col- 
lingwood  to  bring  the  fleet  to  anchor,"  said  Nelson, 
and  expired.  The  last  words  of  Charles  I.  were 
uttered  on  the  scaffold,  —  "I  fear  not  death !  Death 
is  not  terrible  to  me ! " 

Curran's  ruling  passion  was  strong  in  death.  Near 
the  close  of  his  earthly  hours  his  physician  at  his 
morning  call  said  he  "  seemed  to  cough  with  more 
difficulty."  "  That 's  surprising,"  said  the  almost  ex- 
hausted invalid,  "  as  I  have  been  practising  all  night." 
"  There  is  not  a  drop  of  blood  on  my  hands,"  said  the 
expiring  Frederick  V.  of  Denmark.  "Let  not  poor 
Nellie  starve "  (Nell  Gwynn,  his  mistress),  were 
the  last  words  of  Charles  II.  "  I  have  loved  right- 
eousness and  hated  iniquity,  therefore  do  I  die  in 


268         GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

exile,"  said  Pope  Gregory  VII.  with  his  expiring 
breath.  Anne  Boleyn  turned  to  the  executioner  on 
the  scaffold,  and  pointing  to  her  neck,  said  patheti- 
cally, "  It  is  small,  very  small  indeed ! "  The  last 
words  of  Maria  Theresa  were,  "  I  do  not  sleep ;  I  wish 
to  meet  my  death  awake."  Madam  Roland  exclaimed, 
"  0  liberty !  liberty  !  how  many  crimes  are  committed 
in  thy  name !  " 

It  was  in  perfect  accord  with  his  character  when 
Chancellor  Thurlow  said  at  the  closing  moment  of 
his  life,  "  I  'm  shot  if  I  don't  believe  I  'm  dying !  " 
"  World  without  end.  Amen ! "  said  Bunyan  as  he 
breathed  his  last.  "  Guilty,  but  recommended  to  the 
mercy  of  the  court,"  whispered  Lord  Hermand.  "  For 
the  last  time  I  commit  soul,  body,  and  spirit  into  His 
hands,"  said  John  Knox  in  dying.  "  Trust  in  God," 
said  President  Edwards,  "  and  you  need  not  fear." 
These  were  his  last  words.  "  If  I  had  strength 
enough  to  hold  a  pen,"  said  Willian  Hunter,  the  dis- 
tinguished anatomist,  "  I  would  write  how  easy  and 
delightful  it  is  to  die."  The  dying  words  of  Louis 
XIY.  were,  "  I  thought  that  dying  had  been  more 
difficult."  Arthur  Murphy  the  dramatist  quoted  in 
his  last  breath  Pope's  lines, — 

'*  Taught  by  reason,  half  by  mere  decay, 
To  welcome  death  and  calmly  pass  away." 

When  asked  if  he  heard  the  prayers  which  were 
offered  in  his  presence,  the  Duke  of  Marlborough  re- 
plied, "  Yes,  and  I  join  in  them."     He  never  spoke 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.       269 

again.  "  0  Lord,  open  the  King  of  England's  eyes," 
said  the  martyr  Tyndale  as  he  died  at  the  stake. 
When  those  noble  English  reformers,  Latimer  and 
Ridley,  were  being  burned  at  the  stake,  "  Be  of  good 
cheer,  brother,"  cried  Ridley,  "  for  our  God  will  either 
assuage  the  fury  of  this  flame  or  enable  us  to  abide 
it."  Latimer  replied :  "  Be  of  good  comfort,  brother, 
for  we  shall  this  day  light  such  a  candle  in  England 
as  by  God's  grace  shall  never  be  put  out."  Lady 
Jane  Grey's  last  words  upon  the  scaffold  were : 
"  Lord,  into  thy  hands  I  commend  my  spirit." 
"  Many  things  are  growing  plain  and  clear  to  me," 
whispered  Schiller,  and  died  with  these  words  on 
his  lips. 

Anna  Laetitia  Barbauld,  the  English  authoress,  wrote 
with  great  poetic  feeling  and  moral  beauty.  Her 
husband  became  a  lunatic,  and  she  suffered  much. 
It  was  her  beautiful  self-sacrifice  that  gave  the  best 
charm  to  her  character.  She  wrote,  among  many 
other  works,  a  popular  life  of  the  novelist  Richard- 
son, and  some  political  pamphlets  of  great  force  and 
excellence.  Her  series  of  books  for  children  would 
alone  have  given  her  lasting  reputation.  There  oc- 
curs to  us  in  these  closing  pages  the  stanza  which 
she  wrote  in  her  old  age,  probably  in  her  eighty- 
second  year,  not  long  before  her  death,  —  lines  which 
Rogers  and  Wordsworth  so  much  and  so  justly  ad- 
mired. The  former  says  in  his  "  Table  Talk "  that 
while  sitting  with  Madame  D'Arblay  a  few  weeks 
before  her  death,  he  asked  her  if  she  remembered 


270         GENIUS  IX  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

these  lines  of  Mrs.  Barbauld's.  "  Remember  them  !  " 
answered  the  famous  authoress,  "  I  repeat  them  to 
myself  every  night  before  I  go  to  sleep." 

"  Life  !  we  've  been  long  together 
Tlirough  pleasant  and  through  cloudy  weather ; 
'T  is  hard  to  part  when  friends  are  dear  ; 
Perhaps  't  will  cost  a  sigh,  a  tear ; 
Then  steal  away,  give  little  warning, 
Choose  thine  own  time  ; 
Say  not  '  Good-night,'  but  in  some  brighter  clime 
Bid  me  '  Good  moming.'  " 


CHAPTER  XL 

Genius  has  its  hours  of  sunshine  as  well  as  of 
shadow,  and  when  it  finds  expression  in  wit  and 
humor  it  is  undoubtedly  most  popular.  The  Emperor 
Titus  thought  he  had  lost  a  day  if  he  had  passed  it 
without  laughing.  Coleridge  tells  us  men  of  humor 
are  in  some  degree  men  of  genius ;  wits  are  rarely 
so,  although  a  man  of  genius  may,  among  other  gifts, 
possess  wit.  As  in  pathos  and  tenderness  "  one  touch 
of  nature  makes  the  whole  world  kin,"  so  is  it  in  true 
wit  and  humor  with  the  appreciative.  Obtuseness 
will  be  unsympathetic  under  any  circumstances.  "  It 
is  not  in  the  power  of  every  one  to  taste  humor,"  says 
Sterne,  "  however  much  he  may  wish  it ;  it  is  the  gift 
of  God !  and  a  true  feeler  always  brings  half  the  enter- 
tainment with  him."  Bruyere  has  somewhere  said 
very  finely  that "  wit  is  the  god  of  moments,  but  genius 
is  the  god  of  ages."  Some  men  of  genius  have  found 
their  most  natural  exponent  to  be  the  pen ;  others 
indulge  in  practical   humor.     Sheridan^  belonged  to 

^  From  the  volatility  of  his  mind  and  conduct,  it  would  be  a 
misuse  of  language  to  say  that  he  had  good  principles  or  bad  prin- 
ciples. He  had  no  principles  at  all.  His  life  was  a  life  of  expe- 
dients and  appearances,  in  which  he  developed  a  shrewdness  and 
capacity  made  up  of  talent  and  mystification,  of  ability  and  trickery, 
which  were  found  equal  to  almost  all  emergencies.  —  Whipple. 


272         GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

this  latter  class ;  he  was  full  of  fun  and  frolic,  ever 
on  the  alert  for  an  opportunity  to  exercise  his  humor. 
When  on  a  certain  occasion  he  had  been  driving 
about  the  town  for  three  or  four  hours  in  a  hackney- 
coach,  he  chanced  to  see  his  friend  Richardson,  whom 
he  hailed,  and  invited  into  the  vehicle.  When  they 
were  seated  together  he  at  once  introduced  a  subject 
upon  which  he  and  Richardson  always  differed,  and 
a  controversy  naturally  ensued.  At  last,  affecting 
to  be  mortified  at  Richardson's  argument,  Sheridan 
said  abruptly,  "  You  are  really  too  bad  ;  I  cannot 
bear  to  listen  to  such  things :  I  will  not  stay  in  the 
coach  with  you."  And  accordingly  he  opened  the 
door  and  sprang  out,  Richardson  hallooing  trium- 
phantly, "Ah,  you're  beat,  you're  beat!"  Nor 
was  it  until  the  heat  of  the  victory  had  a  little  cooled 
that  he  realized  he  was  left  in  the  lurch  to  pay  for 
Sheridan's  three  hours'  coaching.^ 

Sheridan,  profligate  and  unprincipled  as  he  was, 
still  was  capable  of  fine  expression  of  sentiment  and 
true  poetic  fire.  In  a  poem  called  "  Clio's  Protest ; 
or,  the  Picture  Varnished,"  we  find  the  following 
really  beautiful  lines  :  — 

1  Sheridan  probably  had  not  a  penny  in  his  pocket.  He 
never  did  have  for  more  than  a  few  minutes  at  a  time  ;  yet  this 
was  the  man  of  whose  famous  speech  in  the  House  of  Commons 
Burke  said  :  "  It  was  the  most  astonishing  effort  of  eloquence,  argu- 
ment, and  wit  united,  of  which  there  was  any  record  or  tradition." 
And  of  which  Fox  said,  "  All  that  he  had  ever  heard,  all  that  he 
had  ever  read,  when  compared  with  it,  dwindled  into  nothing, 
and  vanished  like  vapor  before  the  sun." 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.       273 

"  Marked  you  her  cheek  of  rosy  hue  ? 
Marked  you  her  eye  of  sparkling  blue  1 
That  eye  in  liquid  circles  moving  ; 
That  cheek  abashed  at  man's  approving ; 
The  one  Love's  arrows  darting  round  ; 
The  other  blushing  at  the  wound  : 
Did  she  not  speak,  did  she  not  move, 
Now  Pallas,  now  the  Queen  of  Love  1 " 

The  poets  have  frequently  made  satire  an  auxiliary 
of  their  wit ;  and  when  the  proportions  are  properly 
adhered  to,  a  favorable  result  is  produced.  Satire, 
like  many  subtle  poisons  used  as  a  medicine,  may 
be  safely  taken  in  small  quantities,  while  an  over- 
dose is  liable  to  be  fatal.  In  Chaucer's  ^  Canter- 
bury Pilgrims  he  draws  his  portraits  to  the  life. 
While  he  exposes  the  weakness  of  human  nature,  he 
does  not  do  so  in  surliness ;  a  pleasant  smile  wreathes 
his  lips  all  the  while.  There  is  slyness,  but  no  bitter- 
ness in  his  satire.  He  would  not  chastise,  he  would 
only  reform  his  fellow-men.  As  illustrating  exactly 
the  opposite  spirit,  we  may  instance  Pope,  Dryden, 
and  Byron,  who,  descending  from  their  high  estate, 
often  prostituted  tlieir  genius  to  attacks  upon  per- 
sonal enemies  or  rivals,  with  keenest  weapons,  while 
their  opponents  had  no  means  of  defence.  The 
"  Dunciad "  is  a  monument  of  satiric  wit,  or  genius 
belittled. 

I      ^  "  A  perpetual  fountain  of  good  sense,"  Dryden  calls  him ; 

^  "  and  of  good  humor,  too,  and  wholesome  thought,"  adds  Lowell. 
He  was  scholar,  courtier,  soldier,  ambassador,  one  who  had  known 
poverty  as  a  housemate,  and  who  had  been  the  companion  of 
princes. 

18 


274        GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

Swift,  who  wrote  "cords"  of  worthless  rhymes, 
squibs,  songs,  and  verses,  which  live  as  much  by  their 
vulgar  smartness  as  for  the  slight  portion  of  true  wit 
which  tinctures  them,  says :  "  Satire  is  a  sort  of  glass 
wherein  beholders  generally  discover  everybody's  face 
but  their  own ;  which  is  the  chief  reason  for  that  kind 
of  reception  it  meets  with  in  the  world,  and  that  so 
few  are  offended  with  it."  Hawthorne  gave  the  Dean 
a  merited  thrust  when  he  said,  "  the  person  or  thing 
on  which  his  satire  fell  shrivelled  up  as  if  the  Devil 
had  spit  on  it."  The  double  entendre  to  be  found  in 
nearly  all  of  Swift's  effusions,  epigrams,  and  verses, 
comes  with  ill  grace  from  a  dignitary  of  the  Church. 
He  was  always  ready  with  an  epigram  on  all  occa- 
sions. One  "  lives  in  our  memory "  which  he  ad- 
dressed to  Mrs.  Houghton  of  Bormount,  who  took 
occasion  one  day  to  praise  her  husband  in  Swift's 
presence :  — 

"  You  always  are  making  a  god  of  your  spouse  ; 
But  this  neither  reason  nor  conscience  allows  : 
Perhaps  you  will  say  't  is  in  gratitude  due, 
And  you  adore  him  because  he  adores  you. 
Your  argument 's  weak,  and  so  you  will  find; 
For  you,  by  this  rule,  must  adore  all  mankind." 

The  wit  and  humor  of  Shakspeare  endear  him  to 
our  hearts ;  and  what  a  rich  harvest  does  the  gleaner 
obtain  from  his  pages !  Take  "  Love's  Labor 's  Lost," 
for  instance,  a  play  produced  in  his  youth,  so  full  of 
quips  and  quiddity  as  to  live  in  the  memory  by  whole 
scenes.     There  is  no  lack  of  scathing  sarcasm  in  the 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        275 

play,  but  it  leaves  no  bitter  taste  in  the  mouth,  like 
the  "  doses "  of  Swift  or  the  more  unscrupulous  pro- 
ductions of  Pope  in  the  same  line.  Ben  Jonson,^ 
who  ranked  so  high  as  a  dramatist,  has  been  pro- 
nounced to  be,  next  to  Shakspeare,  the  greatest  wit 
and  humorist  of  his  time.  His  expression  was  through 
the  pen,  not  by  the  tongue :  no  man  was  more  taci- 
turn in  society.  Much  of  Jonson's  matter  was  better 
adapted  to  his  time  than  to  ours ;  words  which  seem 
to  us  so  coarse  and  vulgar  passed  unchallenged  in 
the  period  which  gave  them  birth. 

Here  are  five  lines  from  Jonson,  with  which  he 
closes  a  play  directed  against  plagiarists  and  libellers 
generally.     He  sums  up  thus  :  — 

"  Blush,  folly,  blush !  here 's  none  that  fears 
The  wagging  of  an  ass's  ears, 
Although  a  wolfish  case  he  wears. 
Detraction  is  but  baseness'  varlet, 
And  apes  are  apes,  though  clothed  in  scarlet." 

It  is  said  that  Jonson  was  a  "  sombre  "  man.  We 
have  seen  that  it  is  by  no  means  always  sunshine 
with  those  who  brighten  others'  spirits  by  their  pen. 
The  great  luminary  is  not  always  above  the  horizon. 

^  Jonson  died  on  the  6th  of  August,  1637,  at  the  age  of  sixty- 
three.  He  survived  both  wife  and  children.  He  was  buried  in 
Westminster  Abbey.  A  common  slab  laid  over  his  grave  bears 
the  inscription,  "  O  Rare  Ben  Jo/inson  ! "  —  not  Jonson,  as  it  is 
always  printed.  Jonson  was  a  heavy  drinker,  and  it  has  been  said 
that  every  line  of  his  poetry  cost  him  a  cup  of  sack.  Canary  was 
his  favorite  drink  ;  of  which  he  partook  so  immoderately  that  his 
friends  called  him  familiarly  the  Canary  Bird. 


276         GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

A  friend  remarked  to  the  wife  of  one  of  our  wittiest 
poets,  "  What  an  atmosphere  of  mirth  you  must  live 
in,  to  share  a  home  with  one  who  writes  always  so 
sportively  and  wittily  I  "  The  answer  was  a  most  sig- 
nificant shake  of  the  head. 

We  spoke  of  Dryden  as  a  satirist ;  perhaps  no 
writer  ever  went  further  in  the  line  of  bitterness  and 
personality.  His  portrait  of  the  Duke  of  Buckingham 
will  occur  to  the  reader  in  this  connection :  — 

"  A  man  so  various  that  he  seemed  to  be 
Not  one,  but  all  mankind's  epitome  ; 
Stiff  in  opinions,  always  in  the  wrong, 
Was  everything  by  starts,  and  nothing  long  ; 
But,  in  the  course  of  one  revolving  moon, 
Was  chymist,  fiddler,  statesman,  and  buffoon." 

When  a  boy  at  school  in  Westminster,  Dryden 
more  than  once  showed  the  budding  promise  of  the 
genius  that  was  in  him.  When  put  with  other  class- 
mates to  write  a  composition  on  the  miracle  of  the 
conversion  of  water  into  wine,  he  remained  idle  and 
truant,  as  usual,  up  to  the  last  moment,  when  he  had 
only  time  to  produce  one  line  in  Latin  and  two  in 
English ;  but  they  were  of  such  excellence  as  to  pre- 
sage his  future  greatness  as  a  poet,  and  elicit  hearty 
praise  from  his  tutor.     They  were  as  follows :  — 

Videt  et  erubit  lympha  pudica  Deum  ! 
"  The  modest  water,  awed  by  power  divine, 
Beheld  its  God,  and  blushed  itself  to  wine." 

Dryden's  complete  works  form  the  largest  amount 
of  poetical  composition  from  the  pen  of  one  writer,  in 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        277 

the  English  language ;  and  yet  he  published  scarcely 
anything  until  he  was  nearly  thirty  years  of  age. 
From  that  period  he  was  actively  engaged  in  author- 
ship for  forty  years,  and  gave  us  some  of  the  finest 
touches  of  his  genius  in  his  second  spring  of  life. 
Addison  wrote  of  Dryden  at  this  period  the  following 
lines :  — 

"  But  see  where  artful  Dryden  next  appears, 
Grown  old  in  rhyme,  but  charming  e'en  in  years  ; 
Great  Dryden  next,  whose  tuneful  Muse  affords 
The  sweetest  numbers  and  the  fittest  words. 
Whether  in  comic  sounds  or  tragic  airs 
She  forms  her  voice,  she  moves  our  smiles  or  tears ; 
If  satire  or  heroic  strains  she  writes, 
Her  hero  pleases  and  her  satire  bites  ; 
From  her  no  harsh,  unartful  numbers  fall, 
She  wears  all  dresses,  and  she  charms  in  all." 

Richard  Porson,  the  profound  scholar,  linguist,  and 
wit,  reared  many  monuments  of  classic  learning,  which 
have  however  crumbled  away,  leaving  his  name  famil- 
iar to  us  only  as  a  writer  of  jeux  eC esprit ;  but  these 
are  admirable.  He  was  full  of  the  sunshine  of  wit ; 
and  though  sarcastic  and  personal,  as  the  nature  of 
his  bon-mots  compelled,  he  had  no  bitterness  in  his 
reflections,  and  uttered  them  with  a  good-natured 
laugh.  Wonderful  stories  are  told  of  his  powers  of 
memory.  He  could  repeat  several  consecutive  pages 
of  a  book  after  reading  them  once.  It  was  he  who 
wrote  a  hundred  epigrams  in  one  night  on  the  sub- 
ject of  Pitt's  drinking  habit,  one  of  which  occurs 
to  us :  — 


278         GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

"  When  Billy  found  he  scarce  could  stand, 
*  Help,  help  !  *  he  cried,  and  stretched  his  hand, 

To  faithful  Harry  calling. 
Quoth  he,  '  My  friend,  I'm  sorry  for't, 
'T  is  not  my  practice  to  support 
A  minister  that 's  falling.'  " 

The  "  faithful  Harrv  "  was  Dundas,  Viscount  Melville. 

The  reply  of  Pitt  to  Walpole,  March  6,  1741,  is 
one  of  the  finest,  most  polished,  and  biting  retorts 
on  record :  "  The  atrocious  crime  of  being  a  young 
man,  which  the  honorable  gentleman  has,  with  such 
spirit  and  decency,  charged  upon  me,  I  shall  neither 
attempt  to  palliate  nor  deny,  but  content  myself  with 
wishing  that  I  may  be  one  of  those  whose  follies  may 
cease  with  their  youth,  and  not  of  that  number  who 
are  ignorant  in  spite  of  experience." 

Dr.  Gilles,  the  historian  of  Greece,  and  Dr.  Porson 
used  often  to  meet  and  discuss  matters  of  mutual  in- 
terest relating  to  the  classics.  These  interviews  were 
certain  to  lead  to  very  earnest  arguments;  Porson 
was  much  the  better  scholar  of  the  two.  Dr.  Gilles 
was  one  day  speaking  to  him  of  the  Greek  tragedies 
and  of  the  Odes  of  Pindar.  "  We  know  nothing,"  said 
Gilles,  emphatically,  "  of  the  Greek  metres."  Porson 
answered  :  "  If,  Doctor,  you  will  put  your  observation 
in  the  singular  number,  I  believe  it  will  be  quite 
correct."  In  repartee  he  was  remarkable.  "Dr. 
Porson,"  said  a  gentleman  with  whom  he  had  been 
disputing, — "Dr.  Porson,  my  opinion  of  you  is  most 
contemptible."  "  Sir,"  responded  the  Doctor  promptly, 
"  I  never  knew  an  opinion  of  yours  that  was  not  con- 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        279 

temptible."  Porson  was  a  natural  wit,  so  to  speak. 
Being  once  at  a  dinner-party  where  the  conversation 
turned  upon  Captain  Cook  and  his  celebrated  voy- 
ages, an  ignorant  person  in  order  to  contribute  some- 
thing towards  the  conversation  asked,  "  Pi'ay,  was 
Cook  killed  on  his  first  voyage?"  "I  believe  he 
was,"  answered  Porson,  "  though  he  did  not  mind  it 
much,  but  immediately  entered  upon  a  second." 

The  sharpest  repartee  is  both  witty  and  satirical. 
James  II.,  when  Duke  of  York,  made  a  visit  to  Milton, 
prompted  by  curiosity.  In  the  course  of  his  conver- 
sation the  Duke  said  to  the  poet  that  he  thought  his 
blindness  was  a  judgment  of  Heaven  on  him  because 
he  had  written  against  Charles  I.,  the  Duke's  father ; 
whereupon  the  immortal  poet  replied :  "  If  your  High- 
ness thinks  that  misfortunes  are  indexes  of  the  wrath 
of  Heaven,  what  must  you  think  of  your  father's  tragi- 
cal end  ?    I  have  lost  my  eyes  —  he  lost  his  head." 

Few  men  equalled  Coleridge  in  the  matter  of  prompt 
readiness  of  retort,  and  few  have  so  misused  the  lavish 
gifts  of  Providence.^  On  a  certain  occasion  he  waa 
riding  along  a  Durham  turnpike  road,  in  his  awk- 
ward fashion,  —  for  he  was  no  horseman, — when  a  wag^ 

1  Coleridge  says  sadly  in  his  "  Literary  Life,"  "  I  have  laid  too 
many  eggs  in  the  hot  sands  of  this  wilderness  the  world,  with 
ostrich  carelessness  and  ostrich  oblivion.  The  greater  part,  in- 
deed, have  been  trodden  under  foot  and  are  forgotten.  But  yet 
no  small  number  have  crept  forth  into  life,  some  to  furnish 
feathers  for  the  caps  of  others,  and  still  more  to  plume  the  shafts 
in  the  quiver  of  my  enemies,  —  of  them  that,  unprovoked,  have 
lain  in  wait  against  my  soul." 


280        GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

noticing  his  peculiarity,  approached  him.  Quite  miS' 
taking  his  man,  he  thought  the  rider  a  good  subject 
for  a  little  sport,  and  so  accosted  him :  "  I  say,  young 
man,  did  you  meet  a  tailor  on  the  road?"  "Yes," 
replied  Coleridge,  "  I  did,  and  he  told  me  if  I  went 
a  little  further  I  should  meet  a  goose  !  "  The  assail- 
ant was  struck  dumb,  while  the  traveller  jogged 
leisurely  on. 

Lord  Bolingbroke,  the  ardent  friend  of  Pope,  was 
often  bitterly  satirical,  and  notably  quick  at  retort. 
Being  at  Aix-la-Chapelle  during  the  treaty  of  peace 
at  that  place,  he  was  asked  impertinently  by  a  French- 
man whether  he  came  there  in  any  public  character. 
"  No,  sir,"  replied  Bolingbroke,  very  deliberately  ;  "  I 
come  like  a  French  minister,  with  no  character  at  all." 
Bolingbroke's  talents  were  more  brilliant  than  solid, 
but  the  style  of  his  literary  work  is  admirable.  It 
is  generally  believed  that  he  wrote  the  "  Essay  on 
Man  "  in  prose,  and  that  Pope  put  it  into  verse,  with 
such  additions  as  would  naturally  occur  in  such  an 
adaptation. 

Painters,  like  poets,  are  equal  at  times  to  pro- 
ducing the  keenest  epigrams.  Salvator  Rosa's  opin- 
ion of  Michael  Angelo's  "  Last  Judgment "  is  an 
instance  of  this.  The  brother  artist  wrote  not 
unkindly  as  follows :  — 

"  My  Michael  Angelo,  I  do  not  jest ; 
Thy  pencil  a  great  judgment  has  expressed  ; 
Bnt  in  that  judgment  thou,  alas  !  hast  shown 
But  very  little  judgment  of  thine  own  I " 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        281 

We  have  already  spoken  of  Moliere  ^  in  these  pages, 
though  only  too  briefly  when  his  just  fame  is  con- 
sidered. England  has  her  Shakspeare,  Spain  her 
Cervantes,  Germany  her  Goethe,  and  France  her 
Moliere.  We  have  seen  how  triumphantly  his  power- 
ful genius  made  its  way  amid  adverse  circumstances, 
until  it  enabled  him,  as  Disraeli  says,  "  to  give  his 
country  a  Plautus  in  farce,  a  Terence  in  composition, 
and  a  Menander  in  his  moral  truths."  In  short, 
Moliere  showed  that  the  most  successful  reformer  of 
the  manners  and  morals  of  the  people  is  a  great 
comic  poet.  Did  not  Cervantes  "  laugh  Spain's  chiv- 
alry away "  ?  It  is  a  curious  fact,  worthy  of  note, 
that  Moliere,  who  was  so  great  a  comic  writer,  and 
such  an  admirable  comedian  upon  the  stage,  should 
have  been  socially  one  of  the  most  serious  of  men 
and  of  a  melancholic  temperament.  It  was  a  consid- 
erable time  before  his  genius  struck  out  in  the  right 
direction  and  became  self-reliant.  At  the  beginning 
of  his  dramatic  authorship  he  "  borrowed  bravely " 
from  the  Italian,  as  Shakspeare  did ;  and  Spanish 
legends  were  also  adapted  by  his  facile  pen  to  dra- 
matic purposes,  himself  enacting  chosen  comedy  parts 
of  his  own  plays. 

This  course,  however,  did  not  satisfy  the  genius  of 
Moliere  ;  he  felt  that  he  was  capable  of  greater  origi- 

1  So  disgusted  was  the  paternal  upholsterer,  Pocquelin,  at  his 
son's  choice  of  the  stage  for  a  profession,  that  he  virtually  dis- 
owned him.  Moliere  was  an  assumed  name,  to  save  the  family 
honor ;  hut  how  rapidly  that  name  hecame  famous. 


282         GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

nality  and  of  more  truly  artistic  work.  After  much 
communing  with  himself  he  sought  a  new  and  more 
legitimate  field  of  inspiration  and  employed  fresher 
material.  Having  now  the  entrde  to  the  Hotel  de 
Rambouillet,  he  began  to  study  with  critical  eye 
the  court  life  about  him,  soon  producing  his  "  Prd- 
cieuses  Ridicules,"  which  was  a  biting  satire  upon 
the  follies  of  the  day,  though  delicately  screened. 
The  author  skilfully  parried  in  the  prologue  any 
application  to  his  court  associates,  by  averring  that 
the  satire  was  aimed  at  their  imitators  in  the  prov- 
inces. The  ruse  was  sufficient,  and  the  play  was 
performed  without  offence ;  but  its  significance  was 
nevertheless  realized,  and  had  its  reformative  influ- 
ence without  producing  too  great  a  shock.  It  was 
almost  his  first  grand  and  original  effort,  and  from 
thenceforth  his  career  was  a  triumphal  march.  He 
is  said  to  have  exclaimed,  "  I  need  no  longer  study 
Plautus  and  Terence,  nor  poach  on  the  fragments  of 
Menander,  I  have  only  to  study  the  world  about  me." 
Subsequently  the  brilliant  success  of  his  "  Tartuffe," 
his  "Misanthrope,"  and  his"  Bourgeois  Gentilhomme" 
confirmed  liim  in  his  conviction.  Although  society 
felt  itself  arraigned,  it  was  also  humbled  and  power- 
less. The  author  had  become  too  great  a  power  to 
be  suppressed. 

Moliere's  domestic  life,  like  that  of  only  too  many 
men  of  genius,  and  especially  of  authors,  was  a  wreck.^ 

^  Moliere  was  fascinated  by  his  young  wife  ;  her  lighter  follies 
charmed  him.     He  was  a  husband  who  was  always  a  lover.     The 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.       283 

It  may  be  doubted  if  such  persons  ought  to  marry  at 
all.  Rousseau  is  another  instance  of  domestic  in- 
felicity ;  and  so  are  Milton,  Dryden,  Addison,  Steele ; 
indeed,  the  list  could  be  indefinitely  extended.  A 
young  painter  of  great  promise  once  told  Sir  Joshua 
Reynolds  that  he  had  taken  a  wife.  "  Married  !  "  re- 
sponded the  great  master;  "then  you  are  ruined  as 
an  artist."  Michael  Angelo's  answer  when  he  was 
asked  why  he  never  married  will  be  remembered : 
"  I  have  espoused  my  art,  and  that  occasions  me  suffi- 
cient domestic  cares ;  my  works  shall  be  my  children." 
The  marriage  of  men  of  genius  forms  a  theme  of  no 
little  interest  in  the  history  of  literature.  It  is  here- 
in that  genius  has  oftenest  found  its  sunshine  or  its 
shadow.  Even  Emerson  has  said,  "  Is  not  marriage 
an  open  question,  when  it  is  alleged  from  the  begin- 
ning of  the  world  that  such  as  are  in  the  institution 
wish  to  get  out,  and  such  as  are  out  wish  to  get  in  ?  " 
Rousseau  married  a  kitchen-girl,  and  Raphael  allied 
himself  for  the  last  eleven  years  of  his  life  with  a 
common  girl  of  Rome,  whom  he  first  saw  washing 
her  feet  in  the  Tiber.  Judging  from  her  portrait, 
which  he  painted,  and  which  still  hangs  in  the  Bar- 
berini  Gallery,  she  was  by  no  means  beautiful,  though 
the  ensemble  of  head,  face,  and  neck  strikes  the  eye 

actor  on  the  stage  was  the  very  man  he  personated.  Mademoi- 
selle Moliere,  as  she  was  called  by  the  public,  was  the  Lucile  in 
*'  Le  Bourgeois  Gentilhomme."  With  what  a  fervor  the  poet  feels 
her  neglect !  with  what  eagerness  he  defends  her  from  the  ani- 
madversions of  the  friend  who  would  have  dissolved  the  speU !  — 
Disraeli. 


284        GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

as  forming  a  very  attractive  whole.  Margarita  be- 
longed to  the  lower  classes  of  the  Eternal  City,  and 
when  Raphael  died  she  went  back  to  her  former 
obscurity.  There  must  have  been  many  noble  quali- 
ties in  this  young  Roman  girl,  to  have  held  the  con- 
sistent devotion  of  so  great  an  artist  for  an  entire 
decade.  She  must  have  possessed  some  inspiring 
influence  over  him  other  than  forming  his  mere  physi- 
cal model.  Sympathetic  she  undoubtedly  was,  or  else 
no  such  union  could  have  lasted ;  and  one  feels  that 
he  must  have  imparted  to  her  a  portion  of  the  glow- 
ing aspirations  which  fired  his  own  genius. 

Goethe  married  to  legitimize  his  offspring ;  Niebuhr, 
to  please  a  mistress ;  Churchill,  because  he  was  dis- 
pirited and  lonely  ;  Napoleon,  to  obtain  influence ; 
"Wilkes,  to  oblige  a  friend ;  Lamartine,  in  gratitude 
for  a  fortune  which  was  offered  to  him,  and  which  he 
rapidly  squandered  ;  Wycherly  married  his  servant  to 
spite  his  relations.  And  so  we  might  fill  pages  with 
brief  mention  of  the  influences  which  have  led  men 
of  note  to  assume  matrimonial  relations.  Balzac's 
marriage  forms  a  curious  example.  He  met  by  chance, 
when  travelling,  a  youthful  married  lady,  who  told 
him,  without  knowing  who  he  was,  how  much  she 
admired  Balzac's  writings.  "  I  never  travel  without 
a  volume  of  his,"  she  added,  producing  a  copy. 
Greatly  flattered,  the  author  made  himself  known  to 
the  lady,  who  was  a  princess  by  birth,  and  who  became 
his  constant  correspondent  until  the  death  of  her  hus- 
band, when  she  gave  him  her  hand  and  fortune.     They 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        285 

were  married,  and  settled  to  domestic  life  in  a  chateau 
on  the  Rhine. 

But  we  have  wandered  away  from  Moliere  before 
quite  concluding  the  consideration  of  himself  and  his 
works.     One  of  his  most  popular  productions,  "  L'lm- 
promptu  de  Versailles,"  has  often  been  borrowed  from ; 
indeed,  the  general  idea  has  been  appropriated  bodily 
both  on  the  English  and  American  stage.    In  this  piece 
Moliere  appears  in  his  own  person  and  in  the  midst 
of  his  whole   theatrical  company,  apparently  taken 
quite   aback  because  there  is  no  suitable  piece  pre- 
pared for  the  occasion.     The  characters  are  the  actors 
as  though  congregated  in  the  Green  Room,  with  whom 
the   manager  is   consulting,  now   reprimanding  and 
now  advising.     In  the  course  of  his  remarks  he  throws 
out  hints  of  plots  designed  for  plays,  criticises  his  own 
productions,  gives  amusing  sketches  of  character,  and 
in  short  presents  a  humorous,  realistic,  and  unique 
scene   which   formed   as   a   whole   a   very   complete 
comedy,  and  which  proved  a  grand  success.     Louis 
XIY.  was  his  friend  and  patron;  being  himself  partic- 
ularly fond  of  theatrical  performances,  he  often  made 
shrewd   suggestions,  which  the  actor  and  dramatist 
took  good  care  faithfully  to  adopt.     Indeed,  it  was  said 
that  this  then  unique  idea  of  the  Green  Room  brought 
before  the  curtain  was  from  his  Majesty's  own  brain, 
though  greatly  improved  upon  by  Moliere.     Some  of 
the  plots  hinted  at  by  the  manager  before  his  company 
in  this  play  were  afterwards  amplified  and  perfected 
so  as  to  become  popular  dramas,  not  only  by  Moliere, 


286         GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

but  by  other  dramatists.  This  is  notably  the  case 
with  Beaumarchais'  "  Barber  of  Seville,"  which  is  but 
the  elaboration  of  one  of  these  incipient  plots.  How- 
ever, Moliere  was  himself  so  liberal  a  borrower,  like 
Montesquieu,  Racine,  and  Corneille,  he  could  well 
afford  to  lend  to  others.  Bruyere  embodies  whole 
passages  from  Publius  Syrus  in  his  printed  works ; 
and  La  Fontaine  borrowed  his  style  and  much  of  his 
matter  from  Mazot  and  Rabelais.  Though  we  have 
referred  to  this  subject  before,  we  will  add  that  Voltaire 
looked  upon  everything  as  imitation ;  saying  that 
the  instruction  which  we  gather  from  books  is  like 
fire :  we  fetch  it  from  our  neighbor's,  kindle  it  at 
home,  and  communicate  it  to  others,  till  it  becomes 
the  property  of  all. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

Every  tliouglitful  person  must  often  have  realized 
how  close  is  the  natural  sympathy  between  artists  in 
literature  and  artists  of  the  pencil  and  brush  ;  between 
painters  and  poets.  Belori  informs  us  of  a  curious 
volume  in  manuscript  by  the  hand  of  Rubens,  which 
contained  among  other  topics  descriptions  of  the  pas- 
sions and  actions  of  men,  drawn  from  the  poets  and 
delineated  by  the  artist's  own  graphic  pencil.  Here 
were  represented  battles,  shipwrecks,  landscapes,  and 
various  casualties  of  life,  copied  and  illustrated  from 
Yirgil  and  other  classic  poets,  showing  clearly  whence 
Rubens  often  got  his  inspiration  and  ideas  of  detail. 
The  painter  and  the  poet  are  the  Siamese-twins  of 
genius.  The  finest  picture  ever  produced  is  but 
poetry  realized,  though  each  art  has  its  distinct  prov- 
ince. The  same  may  be  said  as  to  sculpture  and 
poetry.  It  has  long  been  a  mooted  question  whether 
the  Laocoon  in  sculpture  preceded  or  was  borrowed 
from  the  idea  expressed  in  poetry.  Lessing  believed 
that  the  sculptor  borrowed  from  the  poet.  All  the 
sister  arts  ^  — music,  sculpture,  poetry,  and  painting — 

^  Campbell  the  poet  and  Turner  the  artist  were  dining  together 
on  a  certain  occasion  with  a  large  party.     The  poet  was  called 


288        GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

are  most  intimately  allied.  When  great  composers, 
like  Mozart,  were  contemplating  a  grand  expression 
of  their  genius,  they  endeavored  to  inspire  themselves 
with  lofty  ideas  by  reading  the  poets ;  while  masters  in 
literature  and  oratory  have  sought  for  a  similar  pur- 
pose the  elevating  and  soothing  influence  of  music. 

Orators  have  not  infrequently  depended  upon  more 
material  stimulus,  as  we  have  seen  in  the  instances 
of  Pitt  and  Sheridan.  The  biographer  of  More  tells 
us  that  when  Sir  Thomas  was  sent  by  Henry  VIII.  on 
an  embassy  to  the  Emperor  of  Germany,  before  he  de- 
livered his  important  remarks  he  ordered  one  of  his 
servants  to  fill  him  a  goblet  of  wine,  which  he  drank 
off  at  once,  and  in  a  few  moments  repeated  it,  still 
demanding  another.  This  his  faithful  servant,  know- 
ing his  master's  temperate  habits,  feared  to  furnish, 
and  even  at  first  declined  to  do  so,  lest  he  should 
expose  him  thereby  before  the  Emperor.  Still,  upon 
a  reiterated  order,  he  brought  the  wine,  which  was 
rapidly  swallowed  by  Sir  Thomas,  who  then  made  his 
address  to  the  sovereign  in  Latin,  like  one  inspired, 
and  to  the  intense  admiration  of  all  the  auditors, 
the  Emperor  himself  complimenting  him  upon  his 
eloquence.  More  was  a  strange  medley  of  character. 
Devout   in  his  religious  convictions,  he  was   yet  as 

upon  for  a  toast,  and  by  way  of  a  joke  on  the  great  professor  of 
the  "  sister  art  "  gave,  "  The  Painters  and  Glaziers."  After  the 
laughter  had  subsided,  the  artist  was  of  course  summoned  to  pro- 
pose a  toast  also.  He  rose,  and  with  admirable  tact  and  ready 
wit  responded  to  the  author  of  "  Pleasures  of  Memory  "  by  giv^ing 
"The  Paper-stainers." 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        289 

light-hearted  as  a  child,  —  at  times  wise  as  Solomon 
in  his  discourse,  and  anon  descending  almost  to 
buffoonery  ;  a  truly  good  man  at  heart,  and  yet  often 
espousing  the  worst  of  causes.  Though  a  pronounced 
reformer,  he  predicted  that  the  Reformation  would 
result  in  universal  vice.  He  is  represented  to  have 
had  a  supreme  contempt  for  money  and  a  true  gen- 
erosity of  spirit.  With  the  most  solemn  convictions 
of  the  realities  of  death,  he  yet  died  upon  the  scaffold 
with  a  joke  upon  his  lips. 

That  imaginative  English  artist  Barry,  the  great 
historical  painter,  advised  his  pupils  as  follows  :  "  Go 
home  from  the  Academy,  light  your  lamps,  and  exercise 
yourselves  in  the  creative  part  of  your  art,  with  Homer, 
with  Livy,  and  all  the  great  characters  ancient  and 
modern,  for  your  companions  and  counsellors."  Barry 
has  left  behind  him  works  upon  art  which  should  not  be 
read  except  with  care,  unbiassed  judgment,  and  honest 
appreciation.  His  own  eccentricities,  all  arising  from 
a  passion  for  art,  led  his  contemporaries  to  criticise  the 
man  and  ignore  his  work.  He  was  wildly  enthusiastic 
in  all  things  relating  to  art,  but  yet  sometimes  ex- 
hibited the  coarseness  of  his  early  associations.  He 
was  born  at  Cork,  from  whence  his  father  sailed  as  a 
foremast  hand  aboard  a  coasting  vessel,  and  designed 
his  son  for  the  same  humble  occupation ;  but  the  lad 
had  other  and  higher  aspirations,  until  finally  he  at- 
tracted the  notice  of  people  able  to  advise  and  help 
him.  Humbly  born  and  self-educated  as  he  was,  he 
presented  some  of  the  highest  aspects  of  genius.     By 

19 


290         GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

the  generosity  of  Edmund  Burke  he  was  sent  to  Rome, 
where  he  studied  art  for  three  or  four  years  under 
favorable  circumstances.  On  his  return  to  England 
he  took  high  rank,  and  was  engaged  by  the  Academy 
as  a  professor.  At  times  in  his  lectures  before  the 
students  he  would  burst  into  such  vehement  enthu- 
siasm as  to  electrify  his  listeners,  and  they  in  turn 
would  rise  to  their  feet  and  shout  applauses  long  and 
deep,  entirely  heedless  of  the  great  turmoil  which  they 
created.  Then  Barry  would  exclaim  :  "  Go  it,  go  it, 
boys ;  they  did  so  at  Athens  !  " 

Literature  and  art  should  be  wedded  together.  The 
careful  reader  and  the  keen  observer  gather  up  a 
mental  harvest  and  store  it  for  use.  What  many 
conceive  to  be  genius  is  often  but  reproduction. 
Hosts  of  ideas  have  passed  through  the  crucible  of 
the  author's  mind  and  have  been  refined  by  the  pro- 
cess, coming  forth  individualized  by  the  stamp  of  his 
personality.  He  is  none  the  less  an  originator,  a 
creator;  originality  is  after  all  but  condensed  and 
refined  observation. 

There  is  a  great  deal  of  nonsense  written  and  cred- 
ited by  the  world  at  large  as  to  the  inspiration  of 
authorship.  Some  of  the  very  best  poetic  turns  of 
thought  are  the  children  of  purest  accident.  Sir 
Joshua  Reynolds,  calling  upon  Goldsmith  one  day, 
opened  his  door  without  knocking,  and  found  him  en- 
gaged in  the  double  occupation  of  authorship  and 
teaching  a  pet  dog  to  sit  upon  his  haunches,  now  cast- 
ing a  glance  at  his  writing-table,  and  now  shaking  his 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        291 

finger  at  the  dog  to  make  him  retain  his  upright  posi- 
tion. The  last  lines  upon  the  paper  were  still  wet,  — 
as  Sir  Joshua  ^  said  when  he  afterwards  told  the  story, 
— and  formed  a  part  of  the  description  of  Italy  :  — 

"  By  sports  like  these  are  all  their  cares  beguiled  : 
The  sports  of  children  satisfy  the  child." 

Goldsmith,  with  his  usual  good  humor,  joined  in  the 
laugh  caused  by  his  whimsical  employment,  and  ac- 
knowledged to  the  great  painter  that  his  boyish  sport 
with  the  dog  suggested  the  lines. 

Goldsmith  was  always  the  wayward  and  erratic 
being  whom  we  have  represented  in  these  pages.  His 
habit  on  retiring  at  night  was  to  read  in  bed  until 
overcome  by  somnolence  ;  and  he  was  so  little  inclined 
to  sleep,  that  his  candle  was  kept  burning  until  the 
last  moment.  His  mode  of  extinguishing  it  finally, 
when  it  was  out  of  immediate  reach,  was  character- 
istic of  his  indolence  and  carelessness  :  he  threw  his 
slipper  at  it,  which  consequently  was  found  in  the 
morning  covered  with  grease  beside  the  overturned 
candlestick.  ^ 

If,  as  we  have  attempted  to  show,  authors  exhibit 
oftentimes  a  spirit  of  vanity,  it  must  be  admitted  that 
readers  as  frequently  exhibit  evidence  of  captiousness. 

^  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  was  inclined  to  tell  stories  about  Gold- 
smith's negligence  in  his  habits,  his  want  of  neatness  in  dress,  his 
vmkempt  appearance  at  all  times,  and  his  absolute  want  of  cleanli- 
ness. No  doubt  the  reflection  was  merited  by  the  careless  author  ; 
but  the  famous  artist  was  himself  such  a  gross  consumer  of  snuff 
that  his  shirt-bosom,  collars,  and  vest  were  never  in  a  respectable 
condition. 


292        GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

Those  who  sit  down  to  peruse  a  book  without  a  good 
and  wholesome  appetite  for  reading  are  very  much 
in  the  same  condition  as  one  who  approaches  a  table 
loaded  with  food,  without  a  sense  of  hunger.  In 
neither  case  can  one  be  a  proper  judge  of  what  is  be- 
fore him  ;  mental  or  physical  pabulum  requires  for  just 
appreciation  a  wholesome  appetite.  Unjust  criticism 
often  grows  out  of  an  attempt  to  force  the  appetite, 
the  censor  coming  to  his  task  in  a  wrong  humor. 
The  author  is  usually  severely  judged  ;  he  is  solus,  his 
critics  are  many :  if  he  satisfies  one  class  of  readers 
he  is  sure  to  dissatisfy  another.  Swift's  definition  of 
criticism,  in  his  "  Tale  of  a  Tub,"  is  pertinent.  "  A 
true  critic,"  he  says, "  in  the  perusal  of  a  book,  is  like 
a  dog  at  a  feast,  whose  thoughts  and  stomach  are 
wholly  set  upon  what  the  guests  fling  away,  and  con- 
sequently is  apt  to  snarl  most  when  there  are  the 
fewest  bones." 

Edgar  A.  Poe's  sarcasm  upon  the  "  North  American 
Review,"  in  the  matter  of  criticism,  will  long  be  re- 
membered. It  was  generally  considered  at  the  time 
not  only  a  keen  but  a  just  retort.  Our  erratic  genius 
writes  :  "  I  cannot  say  that  I  ever  fairly  comprehended 
the  force  of  the  term  '  insult,'  until  I  was  given  to 
understand,  one  day,  by  a  member  of  the  '  North 
American  Review '  clique,  that  this  journal  was  not 
only  willing  but  anxious  to  render  me  that  justice 
which  had  been  already  accorded  me  by  the  '  Revue 
Fran^aise,'  and  the  '  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,'  but 
was  restrained  from  doing  so  by  my  '  invincible  spirit 


•^ 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  [SHADOW.        293 

of  antagonism.'  I  wish  the  '  North  American  Review ' 
to  express  no  opinion  of  me  whatever,  —  for  I  have 
none  of  it.  In  the  mean  time,  as  I  see  no  motto  on 
its  titlepage,  let  me  recommend  it  one  from  '  Sterne's 
Letter  from  France.'  Here  it  is :  '  As  we  rode 
along  the  valley,  we  saw  a  herd  of  asses  on  the  top 
of  one  of  the  mountains :  how  they  viewed  and  re- 
viewed us ! '"  No  one  can  deny  that  Poe  possessed 
remarkable  genius ;  but  his  best  friends  could  not 
approve  either  his  temper  or  his  habits. 

Balzac  complained  of  lack  of  appreciation ;  though, 
as  has  just  been  shown,  he  captivated  one  of  his 
readers  to  such  a  degree  as  to  bring  him  a  wife  and 
a  fortune.  "  A  period,"  he  says,  "  shall  have  cost  us 
the  labor  of  a  day ;  we  shall  have  distilled  into  an 
essay  the  essence  of  our  mind ;  it  may  be  a  finished 
piece  of  art,  and  they  think  they  are  indulgent  when 
they  pronounce  it  to  contain  some  pretty  things,  and 
that  the  style  is  not  bad  ! "  Montaigne  said  that  he 
found  his  readers  too  learned  or  too  ignorant,  and 
that  he  could  please  only  a  middle  class  who  pos- 
sessed just  knowledge  enough  to  understand  him. 
To  read  well  and  to  a  consistent  purpose  is  as  much 
of  an  art  as  to  write  well.  It  was  said  of  Dr.  John- 
son by  Mrs.  Knowles  that  "he  knows  how  to  read 
better  than  any  other  one ;  he  gets  at  the  substance 
of  a  book  directly  ;  he  tears  out  the  heart  of  it." 

A  literary  friend  of  the  writer  has  long  adopted  an 
effective  aid  to  memory  in  connection  with  reading. 
After  perusing  a  book  he  writes  down  the  date,  the 


294        GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

place,  and  under  what  circumstances  it  was  read,  and 
in  a  few  concise  lines  gives  the  impression  it  has  left 
upon  his  mind.  This  he  does  not  design  as  a  criti- 
cism ;  it  is  intended  for  himself  only.  At  a  future 
day  he  can  take  up  the  volume,  since  perusing  which 
he  may  have  read  a  hundred  in  a  similar  manner, 
and  by  turning  to  his  brief  comment  at  the  close, 
the  power  of  association  enables  him  to  recall  the 
subject  of  the  volume  and  virtually  to  remember  the 
contents.  He  assures  us  that  the  circumstances  under 
which  he  became  familiar  with  the  book,  if  fairly  re- 
membered, recall  even  its  detail.  For  our  own  part, 
we  have  trusted  solely  to  a  retentive  memory,  and 
the  choice  of  such  lines  of  reading  as  inclination  has 
suggested.  The  books  which  we  consult  lovingly  will 
long  remain  with  us,  requiring  very  little  effort  to 
impress  their  contents  upon  the  brain. 

How  suggestive  is  this  theme  of  books  and  the 
reading  of  them !  Whipple  eulogizes  them  thus  appro- 
priately :  "Books,  —  light-houses  erected  in  the  great 
sea  of  time  ;  books,  —  the  precious  depositories  of  the 
thoughts  and  creations  of  genius ;  books,  —  by  whose 
sorcery  time  past  becomes  time  present,  and  the  whole 
pageantry  of  the  world's  history  moves  in  solemn 
procession  before  our  eyes.  These  were  to  visit  the 
fireside  of  the  humble,  and  lavish  the  treasures  of 
the  intellect  upon  the  poor.  Could  we  have  Plato 
and  Shakspeare  and  Milton  in  our  dwellings,  in  the 
full  vigor  of  their  imaginations,  in  the  full  freshness 
of  their  hearts,  few  scholars  would  be  affluent  ei^igh 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        295 

to  afford  them  physical  support ;  but  the  living  images 
of  their  minds  are  within  the  reach  of  all.  From 
their  pages  their  mighty  souls  look  out  upon  us  in 
all  their  grandeur  and  beauty,  undimmed  by  the 
faults  and  follies  of  earthly  existence,  consecrated 
by  time." 

Poets  have  been  more  addicted  to  building  castles 
upon  paper  than  residences  upon  the  more  substan- 
tial earth.  Though  the  old  axiom  of  "  genius  and 
a  garret"  has  passed  away,  both  as  a  saying  and  in 
the  experiences  of  real  life,  still  it  had  its  pertinency 
in  the  early  days  of  literature  and  art.  Ariosto,  who 
was  addicted  to  castle-building  with  the  pen,  was 
asked  why  he  was  so  modestly  lodged  when  he  pre- 
pared a  permanent  home  for  himself.  He  replied 
that  palaces  are  easier  built  with  words  than  with 
stones.  But  the  poet,  nevertheless,  had  a  snug  and 
pretty  abode  at  Ferrara,  Italy,  a  few  leagues  from 
Bologna,  which  is  still  extant.  Leigh  Hunt  says : 
"  Poets  love  nests  from  which  they  can  take  their 
flights,  not  worlds  of  wood  and  stone  to  strut  in." 
The  younger  Pliny  was  more  of  a  substantial  archi- 
tect, whose  villa,  devoted  to  literary  leisure,  was  mag- 
nificent, surrounded  by  gardens  and  parks.  Tycho 
Brahe,  the  great  Danish  astronomer,  built  a  grand 
castle  and  observatory  combined  on  an  island  of  the 
Baltic,  opposite  Copenhagen,  which  he  named  the 
"  Castle  of  the  Heavens." 

Many  of  our  readers  have  doubtless  visited  the 
house  which    Shakspeare  built  for  himself    in   his 


296         GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

native  town  on  Red-Lion  Street.  In  passing  through 
its  plain  apartments  one  receives  with  infinite  faith 
the  stereotyped  revelations  of  the  local  cicerone. 
Buffon  was  content  to  locate  himself  for  his  literary 
work  and  study  in  an  old  half-deserted  tower,  and 
Gibbon,  as  we  have  seen,  to  write  his  great  work  in 
the  summer-house  of  a  Lausanne  garden.  Chaucer 
lived  and  wrote  in  a  grand  palace,  because  he  was 
connected  with  royalty  ;  but  he  never  dilated  upon 
such  surroundings, —  his  fancy  ran  to  outdoor  nature, 
to  the  flowers  and  the  trees.  Milton  ^  sought  an 
humble  "  garden  house  "  to  live  in  ;  that  is,  a  small 
house  in  the  environs  of  the  city,  with  a  pleasant 
little  garden  attached.  Addison  wrote  his  "  Cam- 
paign "  "  up  two  pair  of  back  stairs  in  the  Hay- 
market."  Johnson  tells  us  that  much  of  his  literary 
work  was  produced  from  a  garret  in  Exeter  Street. 
Paul  Jovius,^  the  Italian  author,  who  wrote  three 
hundred  concise  eulogies  of  statesmen,  warriors,  and 
literary  men  of  the  fourteenth  century,  built  himself 
an  elegant  chateau  on  the  Lake  of  Como,  beside  the 
ruins  of  the  villa  of  Pliny,  and  declared  that  when 
he  sat  down  to  write  he  was  inspired  by  tlie  associa- 
tions of  the  place.     In  his  garden  he  raised  a  marble 

^  Milton  was  a  London  boy  in  his  eighth  year  when  Shak- 
speare  died  (1616)  ;  he  was  seventeen  years  old  when  Fletcher  died 
(in  1625)  ;  and  twenty-nine  when  Ben  Jonson  died  (in  1637). 

2  Paul  Jovius  was  from  an  ancient  Italian  family.  He  wrote 
altogether  in  Latin.  Clement  VII.  made  him  a  bishop,  and  he 
enjoyed  the  favor  of  Charles  V.  and  Francis  I.,  which  enabled 
him  to  amass  great  wealth.     He  died  at  Florence  in.  1552. 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.       297 

statue  to  Nature,  and  his  halls  contained  others  of 
Apollo  and  the  Muses. 

The  traveller  visits  with  eager  interest  Rubens' 
house  in  his  native  city  of  Antwerp,  a  veritable 
museum  within,  but  plain  and  unpretentious  without. 
Rubens  is  to  the  Belgian  capital  what  Thorwaldsen 
is  to  Copenhagen.  Spenser  lived  in  an  Irish  castle 
(Kilcolman  Castle),  which  was  burned  over  his  head  bj 
a  mob  ;  and,  sad  to  say,  his  child  was  burned  with  it. 
In  his  verses  Spenser  was  always  depicting  "  lowly 
cots,"  and  it  was  on  that  plane  that  his  taste  rested. 
Moore's  vine-clad  cottage  at  Sloperton  is  familiar  to 
all.  In  the  environs  of  Florence  we  still  see  the  cot- 
tage home  where  Landor  lived  and  wrote,  and  in  the 
city  itself  the  house  of  Michael  Angelo,  —  plain  and 
unadorned  externally,  but  with  a  few  of  the  great 
artist's  household  gods  duly  preserved  in  the  several 
apartments.  The  historic  home  of  the  poet  Long- 
fellow, in  Cambridge,  has  become  a  Mecca  to  lovers 
of  poetry  and  genius ;  while  Tennyson's  embowered 
cottage  at  the  Isle  of  Wight  is  equally  attractive  to 
travellers  from  afar. 

Pope^  had  a  modest  nest  at  Twickenham,  and 
Wordsworth  at  Rydal  Mount,  the  beauties  of  both  being 
more  dependent  upon  the  surrounding  scenery  than 
upon  any  architectural  attraction.     Pope  declared  all 

1  "Pope  died  in  1744,"  says  Lowell,  "at  the  height  of  Ms 
renown,  the  acknowledged  monarch  of  letters,  as  supreme  as 
Voltaire  when  the  excitement  and  exposure  of  his  coronation- 
ceremonies  at  Paris  hastened  his  end,  a  generation  later." 


298        GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

gardens  to  be  landscape-paintings,  and  he  loved  them. 
Scott  made  himself  a  palatial  home  at  Abbotsford, 
which  was  quite  an  exception  to  that  of  his  brother 
poets.  Dr.  Holmes's  unpretentious  town  house  in 
the  Trimountain  city  overlooks  the  broad  Charles, 
and  affords  lihn  a  glorious  view  of  the  setting  sun. 
Emerson's  Concord  home  was  and  is  the  picture  of 
rural  simplicity.  Hawthorne's  biographer  makes  us 
familiar  with  his  red  cottage  at  Lenox.  Bryant  made 
himself  an  embowered  summer  cottage  at  Roslyn, 
New  York  State.  Lowell  has  a  fine  but  plain  resi- 
dence overlooking  the  beautiful  grounds  of  Mount 
Auburn.  Nothing  could  be  more  simple  and  lovely 
than  Whittier's  Danvers  home.  None  of  these  poets 
have  built  castles  of  stone,  whatever  they  may  have 
done  under  poetical  license. 

"  I  never  had  any  other  desire  so  strong,  and  so  like 
to  covetousness,"  says  the  poet  Cowley,  "  as  that  I 
might  be  master  at  least  of  a  small  house  and  a  large 
garden,  with  very  moderate  conveniences  joined  to 
them,  and  there  dedicate  the  remainder  of  my  life 
only  to  the  culture  of  them  and  study  of  Nature,  and 
then,  with  no  desire  beyond  my  wall, — 

* Whole  and  entire  to  lie, 


In  no  unactive  ease,  and  no  unglorious  poverty.'  " 

Cowley  at  last  got  what  he  so  ardently  desired,  but  it 
was  not  until  he  was  too  old  and  broken  in  health  to 
find  that  active  enjoyment  which  he  had  so  fondly  an- 
ticipated.    He  died  in  the  forty-ninth  year  of  his  age. 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        299 

"We  spoke  of  the  contrast  which  was  manifest  be- 
tween the  private  and  public  life  of  Moli^re.  These 
paradoxes  are  strange,  but  by  no  means  uncommon  in 
the  character  of  men  of  genius.  It  will  be  remembered 
that  Grimaldi,  the  cleverest  and  most  mirth-provoking 
clown  of  his  day  in  England,  was  often  under  medical 
treatment  on  account  of  his  serious  attacks  of  melan- 
choly. It  seems  almost  incredible  that  men  of  such 
profound  judgment  in  most  matters,  as  were  Dr. 
Johnson  and  Addison,  should  have  been  so  inexcu- 
sably weak  as  to  entertain  a  belief  in  ghosts,  —  an 
eccentricity  which  neither  of  them  denied.  Byron,^ 
who  as  a  rule  was  noted  for  his  shrewd  common- 
sense,  was  so  superstitious  that  he  would  not  help  a 
person  at  table  to  salt,  nor  permit  himself  to  be  served 
with  it  by  another's  hand.  There  were  other  equally 
absurd  "  omens "  which  he  strenuously  regarded. 
Cowper,  who  was  a  devoutly  religious  man,  deliber- 
ately attempted  to  hang  himself, —  an  act  entirely  at 
variance  with  his  serious  convictions.  So  also  Hugh 
Miller,  one  of  the  most  wholesome  writers  upon  the 
true  principles  of  life,  wrested  his  own  life  from 
his  Maker's  hands. 

Pope,  who  was  such  a  bravado  with  his  pen,  boldly 

^  No  other  man  presented  within  himself  such  a  bundle  of  con- 
tradictions. "  He  seems  an  embodied  antithesis,"  says  Whipple, 
—  "a  mass  of  contradictions,  a  collection  of  opposite  frailties  and 
powers.  Such  was  the  versatility  of  his  mind  and  morals,  that 
it  is  hardly  possible  to  discern  the  connection  between  the  giddy 
goodness  and  the  brilliant  wickedness  which  he  delighted  to  ex- 
hibit."    In  all  his  relations  he  was  consistently  inconsistent. 


300        GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW. 

denouncing  an  army  of  scholars  and  wits  in  his 
"Dunciad,"  was  personally  an  arrant  coward,  who 
could  not  summon  sufficient  self-possession  to  make  a 
statement  before  a  dozen  of  his  personal  friends.  The 
paradox  which  existed  between  Goldsmith's  pen  and 
tongue  passed  into  an  axiom  :  with  the  one  he  was  all 
eloquence  and  grace ;  with  the  other,  as  foolish  as  a 
parrot.  Douglas  Jerrold,  whose  fort  was  as  clearly 
that  of  wit  and  humor  as  it  is  the  sun's  province 
to  shine,  was  ever  wishing  to  write  a  profound  essay 
on  natural  philosophy.  Newton,  highest  authority  in 
algebra,  could  not  make  the  proper  change  for  a 
guinea  without  assistance,  and  while  he  was  master 
of  the  Mint  was  hourly  put  to  shame  by  the  superior 
practical  arithmetic  of  the  humblest  clerks  under  him. 
Another  peculiarity  of  Newton  was  that  he  fancied 
himself  a  poet ;  but  who  ever  saw  a  verse  of  his  com- 
position ?  Judged  by  all  accepted  rules,  Charles 
Lamb  experienced  ills  sufficient  to  have  driven  him 
to  commit  suicide ;  whereas  the  truth  shows  that 
with  "  his  sly,  shy,  elusive,  ethereal  humor  "  he  was 
ordinarily  the  most  genial  and  contented  of  beings. 

Curious  beyond  expression  are  the  many-sided 
phases  of  genius,  and  indeed  of  all  humanity.  Let  us 
therefore  have  a  care  how  we  judge  our  fellow-men, 
since  what  they  truly  are  within  themselves  we  can- 
not know,  and  may  only  infer  by  what  they  seem  to 
be  relatively  to  ourselves.  Undoubtedly  the  germs 
of  virtue  and  of  vice  are  born  within  the  soul  of 
every  human  being ;  their  development  is  contingent 


GENIUS  IN  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW.        301 

upon  how  slight  a  cause !  Nor  in  our  readiness  to 
censure  should  we  forget  in  whose  image  we  are  all 
created,  —  "a  little  lower  than  the  angels,  a  little 
higher  than  the  brutes."  It  is  the  nature  of  man,  like 
the  harp,  to  give  forth  beautiful  or  discordant  sounds 
according  to  the  delicacy  and  skill  with  which  it  is 
touched.  We  find  what  we  come  to  find, —  what,  in- 
deed, we  bring  with  us.  Richard  Baxter,  the  prolific 
author  upon  theology,  at  the  close  of  a  long  life  said  : 
"  I  now  see  more  good  and  more  evil  in  all  men  than 
heretofore  I  did.  I  see  that  good  men  are  not  so  good 
as  I  once  thought  they  were  ;  and  I  find  that  few  are 
so  bad  as  either  malicious  enemies  or  censorious  pro- 
fessors do  imagine." 


INDEX. 


Adams,  John,  28. 

Addison,  Joseph,  38,  42,  78,  86,  116  and 

note,  118,  '202,  277,  283,  296,  299. 
^schylus,  77. 
.ffisop,  4. 

Agassiz,  Louis,  103  and  note. 
Akenside,  Mark,  7. 
Alexander  the  Great,  27. 
Alfieri,  Vittorio,  136,  266. 
Allston,  Washington,  45,  97  and  note. 
Ames,  Fisher,  26,  45. 
Amyot,  Jacques,  6. 
Andersen,  Uans  Christian,  22  and  note,  63, 

84,  205. 
Andr6,  Major  John,  43. 
Angelo,  Michael,  14,  242,  283. 
Arago,  Dominique  Francois,  184. 
Arc,  Joaa  of,  29,  188. 
Ariosto,  Lodovico,  295. 
Aristippus,  113. 
Aristo,  115. 
Aristophanes,  2,  3. 
Arkwright,  Sir  Richard,  18. 
Arnauld,  Antoine,  33. 
Astor,  John  Jacob,  26  and  note. 
Astor,  William  B.,  26  note. 
Auber,  Daniel  Fran(jois  Ksprit,  82. 
Audubon,  John  James,  222,  223  and  note. 


Bacon,  Francis,  32,  57  and  note,  77,  124. 
Bailey,  Pliilip  James,  227. 
Ball,  Thomas,  21  and  note. 
Balzac,  de  (Honors),  46,  207,  284,  293. 
Bancroft,  George,  35,  203,  227. 
Bandoccin,  6. 

Barbauld,  Anna  Laetitia,  269. 
Barrow,  I.'saac,  116. 
Barry,  James,  7,  32  note,  289. 
Baxter,  Richard,  301. 
Beaconsfield,    Lord  (Disraeli'),  13  note,  87 
note,  117  note,  135,  205,  227  and  note. 


Beaufort,  Cardinal  Henry,  266. 
Beaumarchais,  de  (Pierre  Augusts  Caron), 

21. 
Beckford,  WilUam,  68. 
Beecher,  H.  W.,  38. 

Beethoven,  van,  Ludwig,  127  and  note,  221. 
Bellini,  Vincenzo,  29. 
Bentham,  Jeremy,  137  and  note. 
Bentivoglio,  Ercole,  149. 
Bentley,  Richard,  40. 
B^ranger,  de  (Pierre  Jean),  8, 139  and  note, 

194,  209. 
Betterton,  Thomas,  260. 
Beveridge,  Bi.shop,  57. 
Bewick,  Thomas,  24. 
Bide,  266. 

Biglow,  Hosea,  20  note. 
Blackstone,  Sir  William,  77. 
Blessington,  Lady  Margaret,  67  note. 
Bloomfield,  Robert,  23. 
Boccaccio,  Giovanni,  9. 
Boethius,  131  note. 

Boffin, ,  24. 

Boleyn,  Anne,  268. 

Bolingbroke,  Lord   (Henry  Saint  John), 

280. 

Bousard, ,  135. 

Bowditch,  Nathaniel,  16. 
Boyle,  Robert,  281. 
Boyle,  Samuel,  164. 
Bracegirdle,  262. 
Bright,  John,  15,  35. 
Brindley,  James,  19. 
Britton,  John,  21. 
Bronte,  Anne,  192. 
Bronte,  Charlotte,  56,  62,  192. 
Bronte,  Emily,  192. 
Bront6,  Rev.  Patrick,  102. 
Brooks,  Shirley,  227. 
Brougham,  Lord,  32  note,  206. 
Browning,  Mrs.,  163  note. 
Bruyere,  de  la  (Jean),  270,  286. 


304 


INDEX. 


Bryant,  'n'illiam  C,  29,  227,  298. 
Brydges,  Sir  Samuel  Kgerton,  201. 
Butfou,  Georges  Louis  Leclerc,  Comte,  48, 

61,  83,  89,  205,  215,  227,  296. 
Bulwer  Ljtton,  31, 37, 46,  63, 106,  108,  227, 

228. 
Bunyaa,  John,  15  and  note,  131,  268. 
Burgundy,  Duke  of,  119. 
Burke,  Edmund,  32  and  note,  33,  38,  40, 

55,  77,  78,  86.  225,  227. 
Burn.s,  Robert,  77,  79  and  note,  106,  108, 

117, 122, 185,  186,  208,  220. 
Burritt,  Elihu,  It),  112. 
Burton,  Robert,  120,  162  and  note. 
Butler,  Samuel,  153  and  note. 
Buxton,  Sir  Thomas  Fowell,  19. 
Byron,  George  Gordon  Noel,  37,  44,  50,  62, 

and  note,  63,  90,  106,  116,  117,  142,  176, 

177  and  note,  200,  227,  266,  273,  299  and 

note. 
Byron,  Thomas,  115. 


Cjisar,  Julius,  60,  206. 

Caesar,  Octavius,  28  note. 

Calhoun,  John  C.  22,  28. 

Calvart,  Denis,  251. 

Camoens,  Luis,  129  and  note. 

Campbell,  Thomas,  152,  287  note. 

Cano,  Alonzo,  265. 

Canova,  Antonio,  6,  208,  255,  256. 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  36,  41,  58.  63,  79.  89, 108, 

128, 130, 138, 148,  149, 151, 165,204,218, 

223,  229. 
Cameades,  73. 
Cato,  33, 151. 

Cellini,  Benvenuto,  153  and  note. 
Cervantes.  Misruel,  12, 13  and  note,  129, 131 

note,  132  and  note,  206. 
Channing,  Dr.   WilUam    E.,  47,  222  and 

note. 
Chantrey,  Sir  Francis,  21. 
Chapin,E.  H.,38. 
Charlemagne,  28. 
Charles,  Duke  of  Orleans,  132. 
Charles  I.  of  England,  267. 
Charles  II.  of  England,  267. 
Charles  XII.  of  Sweden,  27  and  note. 
Chateaubriand,  Franfois  Auguste,  124  and 

note. 
Chatham,  Earl  of,  34. 
Chatterton,  Thomas,  31,  129,  166. 
Chaucer,  Geoffrey,  10,  31,  34,  131  note,  265, 

273,  296. 
Choate,  Rufus,  45, 114. 
Churchill,  Charles,  87  and  note,  284. 


Gibber,  CoUey,  217. 

Cicero,  21,  206,  20y. 

Cimaro.sa,  Domenico,  62. 

Clare,  John,  137. 

Clark,  Samuel,  100. 

Cleanthes  the  Stoic,  5. 

Clive,  Robert,  Lord,  28. 

Clyde,  Lord,  15. 

Cobbett,  William,  12,  32  note,  133. 

Cobden,  Richard,  15. 

Coleridge,  S.  T,,  2  note,  18,  38,  39,  52,  53 

note,  62,  77,  104,  105  and  note,  115,  123, 

139,  152  note,   208,  239,   270,  279   and 

note. 
Colletet,  Guillaume,  135. 
Collier,  John  Payne,  125. 
Collins,  William,  171  and  note. 
Colorden,  267. 

Colton  (Lacon),  91, 182,  183. 
Columbus,  Christopher,  10,  11  and  note. 
Combe,  George,  166. 
Cougreve,  William,  29, 124,  125  and  note, 

138,  201. 
Condc,  de  (Louis II.  de  Bourbon), Prince,  28. 
Cook,  James,  Capt.,  19. 
Cormontaigne,  Louis  de,  76. 
Corneille,  Peter,  43,  44,  128,  227,  241. 
Correggio,  Antonio  AUegri  da,  254. 

Correra, ,  17. 

Cortes,  Hernando,  28. 

Cowley,  Abraham,  31,  37,  239,  298. 

Cowper,  William,  137  and  note, 161,162,221, 

299. 
Crabbe,  George,  92, 129,  153, 
Crassus,  Roman  triumvir,  5  note. 
Cratinus,  77. 

Crebillon ,  Prosper  Jolyot,  84,  267. 
Cromwell,  Oliver,  13,  122. 
Cruden,  Alexander,  137. 
Cunningham,  Allan,  22. 
Curran,  John  Philpot,  40,  57,  238,  267. 
Cashing,  Caleb,  45. 


D'AiEirBERT.  Jean  le  Rond,  7. 

Dairy mple.  Sir  David  (Lord  Ilailes),  75. 

Dante,  AUighieri,  40,  51, 128,  148  and  note, 

205. 
D'Arblay,  Madame  (Frances  Bumey),  269. 
Darwin,  Dr.  Erasmu,"!,  99. 
Davenant,  Sir  William,  131  note. 
Da  Vinci,  Leonardo,  121  and  note. 
Davy,  Sir  Humphry,  7,  106. 
Decker,  Thomas,  140. 
De  Foe,  Daniel,  11,  132, 153. 
Demosthenes,  204. 


INDEX. 


305 


De  Quincey,  Thomas,  77, 129, 136,  137  and 

note,  191),  211. 
De  Tocqueville,  Alexis  Charles  Henry  Clerel, 

62,  207. 
Dibdin,  Charles,  63. 
Dick,  Robert,  24. 
Dickens,  Charles,  31,  46,  62,  77,  91,  109, 

110,  114, 197,  204  and  note,  242. 
Diogenes,  211. 
Dodsley,  Robert,  23. 
Domenichino,  Zampiori,  06. 
Drew,  Samuel,  23. 
Dryden,  John,  10,  40  and  note,  73,  74  and 

note,  106,  115,  214,  273,  276,  2S3. 
Duels,  Jean  Fran^oi.*,  209. 
Dumas,  Alexandre,  13,  84  and  note,  109, 

194, 233. 
Durer,  Albert,  205. 

Edgewoeth,  Maria,  43  and  note. 

Edwards,  President  Jonathan,  268. 

Edwards,  Thomas,  23. 

Elizabeth,  Queen,  266. 

Elliott,  Ebenezer,  17  and  note. 

Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo,  4,  23,  27,  38,  63 

note,  69  note,  200,  204,  283,  298. 
Ennius,  77. 
Epictetus,  5,  110. 
Erasmus,  Desire,  150. 
Ereilla,  Alonzo  de,  133. 
Eupolis,  77. 
Euripides,  126. 
Evarts,  William,  98  and  note. 


FfeNELON,  Francois  de  Salignac  dela  Mothe, 

94. 
Fielding,  Henry,  45  note,  155  and  note,  156, 

210. 
Fields,  James  T.,  109,  182. 
Fletcher,  Andrew,  of  Saltoun,  8  note. 
Fontenelle,  Bernard  le  BoTier,  34. 
Foote,  Samuel,  261. 
Fordyce,  Dr.  George,  115. 
Forrest,  Edwin,  189. 
Foster,  John,  48,  58. 
Fox,  Charles  James,  40. 
Franklin,  Dr.  Benjamin,  16  and  note,  34, 

124,  241. 
Frederick  V.  of  Denmark,  267. 
Fuller,  Margaret,  41,  42  and  note,  45,  204. 
Fuller,  Thomas,  40  and  note,  123. 

Qaliieo,  126, 127  and  note. 
Garfield,  James  A.,  22. 


Garrick,  David,  42  and  note,  43,  65,  213, 

258,  259  and  note,  263  note. 
Garrison,  William  Lloyd,  18  and  note. 
Gaskell.Mrs.  Elizabeth  C,  57. 
Gay,  John,  24  and  note,  114,  202. 
Gelli,  GioTanni  Battista,  6. 
Gibbon,  Edward,  91,  94,  123  and  note,  156, 

205,  220,  242  and  note. 
Gibson,  John,  19. 
Gifford,  William,  21, 169,  224. 
Gilles,Dr.,  278. 
Giotto,  Angiolotto,  14. 
Giovanni,  242. 

Gladstone,  Rt.  Hon.  W.  E.,  35. 
Gliick,  von  (Johann  Christoph),  80. 
Godeau,  Antoine,  Bishop  of  Venice,  95. 
Goethe,  Johann  Wolfgang,  27,  71  note,  85, 

111,  122,  ISO,  180  note,  205,  214,  284. 
Goldsmith,  Oliver,  2  note,  37,40,45,48,58, 

63,  66,  109,  117,  146  and  note,  147,  207, 

236  and  note,  290,  800. 
Grattan,  Henry,  116  note. 
Gray,  Thomas,  40, 174  and  note,  175  note. 
Greeley,  Horace,  23. 
Greene,  General  Nathanael,  23. 
Greene,  Robert,  154. 
Gregorj  VII.,  Pope,  268. 
Grey,  Lady  Jane,  269. 
Grimaldi,  Joseph,  299. 
Guizot,  Francois  Pierre  Guillaume,  30. 
Guy  on,   Madame,   Jeanne    Bouvier    de    la 

Motte,  134. 
Gwynn,  Nell,  262, 267. 


Hall,  Robert,  30  and  note,  77, 108. 

Hallam,  Arthur,  153  note. 

Halleck,  Fitz-Greene,  11,  29, 139. 

Hamilton,  Alexander,  28. 

Hampden,  John,  122. 

Handel,  George  Frederick,  29,  37,  80,  81 

and  note,  127,  144  and  note. 
Hannibal,  28. 

Hardy, 49. 

Hawkins,  Sir  John,  54. 
Hawksworth,  Dr.  John,  168  note. 
Haydn,  Joseph,  83  and  note,  117. 
Haydon,  Benjamin  Robert,  253  note. 
Hawthorne,  N.athaniel,  103,  221,  298. 
Hazlitt,  William,  3  note,  9  note,  39,  45,  63, 

90,  174  and  note,  207,  2*3  note. 
Heller,  Joseph,  267. 
Hemans,  Mrs.    Felicia  Dorothea,  191  and 

note. 
Henry  of  Navarre,  110. 
Henry  V.  of  France,  119. 
20 


306 


INDEX. 


Herbert,  George,  106. 

Herder,  von  (Johann  Qottfried),  267. 

Hermaud,  Lord,  268. 

Heron,  Robert,  140. 

Hesiod,  120. 

Hey  ward,  John,  214. 

Hobbes,  Thomas,  34,  99. 

Ilobson, 24. 

Hoffman,  Charles  Fenno,  137, 193. 

Hogarth,  William,  61,  251. 

Hogg,  James,  14  note,  93,  20S. 

Holmes,  Oliver  Wendell, 35, 71, 88, 154, 209. 

Holzmann,  Adolf,  129,  167. 

Homer,  2  and  note. 

Hood,  Thomas,  76,  141,  209  and  note. 

Hook,  Theodore,  133  and  note. 

Horace,  52,  210. 

Home,  Dr.  Thomas  Hartwell,  120. 

Horsley,  Bishop  Samuel,  77. 

Howard,  John,  14. 

Howe,  Mrs.  Julia  Ward,  35. 

Howell,  James,  133. 

Hughes,  John,  201. 

Hugo,  Victor,  207,  231. 

Hume,  David,  55  and  note,  94  and  note. 

Hunt,  Leigh,  16  note,  31,  38, 134, 144  note, 

145  note,  219,  295. 
Hunter,  John,  19. 
Hunter,  William,  268. 
Huntington,  William,  24. 


Ie%tn-o,  Washington,  97,  100, 139,  227. 


Jackson,  Andrew,  22. 

Jasmin,  Jacques,  22. 

Jeffrey,  Lord  Francis,  43  note. 

Jerrold,  Douglas,  23,  29  note,  101, 102,110, 
l'.i6,  224,  2.36,  300. 

Johnson,  Andrew,  22. 

Johnson,  Dr.  Samuel,  23,  24,  33,  36  note, 
3S,  42,  54,  58,  66,  74,  92,  116,  140  note, 
151,  155  note,  159-162,  180  note,  202, 
208,  211,  216,  236,  293,  296,  299. 

Jonson,  Ben,  10,  40  and  note,  68,  181  and 
note,  275  and  note. 

Jovius,  Paul,  296. 


Keat.s,  John,  13,  31, 115  and  note,  169, 170 

and  note. 
Kepler,  Johann,  18,  205. 
Kimball,  Moses,  21  note. 
King,  Thomas  Starr,  60. 
Klopstock,  Friedrich  Gottlieb,  31. 


Knight,  Richard  Payne,  165. 
Knox,  John,  265. 

Kotzebue,von,  August  Friedrich  Ferdinand, 
149  and  note. 


Lafayette,  General  Marie  Jean  Paul,  28. 
Lafayette,  Madame  de,  48  note. 
La  Fontaine,  Jean,  70,  241,  286- 
Lamartine,  Alphonse  de,  85,  115,  136,  233, 

284. 
Lamb,  Charles,  38,  39,  44,  46,  104, 105, 107 

and  note,  113  and  note,  115,  152, 178- 

181,  182,  300. 
Lamb,  Mary,  178. 
Landon,   Miss  Letitia  Elizabeth,  190,  191 

and  note. 
Landor,  Walter  Savage,  34,  67  and  note, 

207,  297. 
Latimer,  Hugh,  269. 
Lawrence,  Sir  Thomas,  232,  253. 
Layard,  Austen  Hem y,  227. 
Lee,  Prof.  Samuel,  19. 
Leibnitz,  Gottfried  Wilhelm,  Baron,  220. 
Lenau,  Nikolaus,  138. 
Leon,  Ponce  de,  132. 
Le  Sage  (Gil  Bias),  129. 
Lewis,  Sir  George  Cornewall,  120. 
Lincoln,  Abraham,  22. 
Lind,  Jenny,  244. 
LinniBus  (Karl  von  Linne),  25. 
Liston,  John,  260. 
Livingston,  Dr.  Daviil,  14. 
Locke,  John,  122  and  note,  201. 
Lockhart,  John  Gibson,  227. 
Longfellow,  Henry  W.,  38  note,  47, 52, 142, 

227,  297. 
Lorraine,  Claude,  11. 
Louis  XIII.  of  France,  12 
Louis  XIV.  of  France,  268. 
Louis  XVI.  of  France,  119. 
Lovelace,  Richard,  1.33. 
Lowell,  James  Russell,  203,  298. 
Loyola,  Ignatius,  241. 
Lucan,  126. 

Luther,  Martin,  86,  161,  221. 
Lydiat,  Thomas,  131. 


Mac.\uiay,  Lord  (Thomas  Babington),  30, 
32, 39, 55,  68.  74, 109, 137  note,  148,  160, 
176,  218,  234. 

Macrcady,  William  Charles,  114. 

Machiavelli,  Niccolo  di  Bernardo,  148. 

Malherbe,  de  (Fran9ois),  266. 

Mann,  Horace,  19. 


INDEX. 


307 


Marlborough,  Duke  of  (John  Churchill), 

268. 
Maria  Theresa,  208. 
Massinger,  Philip,  14D. 
Matthews,  Charles,  Sr  ,  29. 
Maturin,  Charles  Robert,  110. 
Maurice  of  Saxony,  28  note. 
Mazarin,  Cardinal  Giulio,  119. 

McMahon, ,  119. 

M^hul,  Etienne  Ilenri,  72. 

Menage,  Gilles,  34. 

Menander,  33  note. 

Metternich,  von  (Clemens  Wenzel),  41. 

Miller,  Dr.  Isaac,  Dean  of  Carlisle,  22. 

Miller,  Hugh,  13  and  note,  2»9. 

Milton,  John,  31,  59,  62,  92,  114,  119,  128, 

and  note,  151,  279,  283,  296. 
Mirabeau,  de  (Honore  Gabriel  de  Riquetti), 

237,  267. 
Mitford,  Mary  Russell,  51,  90,  200. 
Mitford,  William,  217. 
Moliere,  Jean  Baptiste  PocqueUn,  11, 12, 15, 

69,  240,  281,  282,  285. 
Montague,  Edward,  202. 
Montaigne,  Michel  Eyquem,  52,  91, 104, 123, 

293. 
Montesquieu,  Charles,  171. 
Montgomery,  James,  133. 
Moore,  Thomas,  29,  48  and  note,  91, 114, 

232,  297. 
More,  Hannah,  208. 
More,  Sir  Thomas,  37,  288. 
Morphy,  Paul,  CO. 
Moshlech,  Dr.,  167. 
Motherwell,  William,  151. 
Mounier,  Marchioness  de,  237. 
Mozart,     Johann     Chrysostom    Wolfgang 

Amadeus,  29, 37,  81 ,  82  and  note,  144  and 

note,  145  and  note,  161. 
Murphy,  Arthur,  268. 
Musset,  Alfred  de,  77,  194. 

Napoleon  Bonaparte,  28, 108,  284. 
Necker,  Madame  Albcrtine  Adrienne,  172. 
Nelson,  Lord,  Horatio,  267. 
Newton,  Sir  Isaac.  115, 168,  202,  212,  223, 

240,  300. 
Niebuhr,  Barthold  Georg,  284. 
Nilsson,  Christina,  245. 
North,  Christopher,  77. 

Oakley,  Henry,  1.33. 

Offenbach,  Isaac,  82. 

Opie,  Amelia,  248. 

Opie,  John,  6,  247  and  note.  1 


Orrery,  Lord,  93. 
Otway,  Thomas,  153. 


Paganim,  Niccolo,  14. 

Paine,  Thomas,  55,  56  and  note. 

Paley,  Dr.  WilUam  (Archdeacon  of  Car- 
lisle), 106. 

Parmigiano,  Girolamo  Francesco  Maria 
(Mazzola),  95. 

Parr,  Dr.,  107,  226  note,  229. 

Pascal,  Blaise,  219. 

I'atti,  Adeliua,  190. 

Paul,  Jean,  130,  138. 

Peabody,  Elizabeth,  35. 

Peabody,  George,  26. 

PeUico,  Silvio,  132. 

Penn,  William,  133. 

Perugino,  Pietro  Venucci,  14. 

Petavius,  Denis,  100. 

Petrarch,  Francesco,  266. 

Petrouius,  70. 

Phillips,  Ambrose,  201. 

Phillips,  Wendell,  55,  69. 

Pierce,  Franklin,  193. 

Pisistratus,  2. 

Pitt,  WiUiam,  28,  117,  206,  278. 

Plato,  206. 

Plautus,  69,  126. 

Pliny,  206,  295. 

Plutarch,  33,  118. 

Poe,  Edgar  A.,  45,  77,  117,  198,  292. 

Pope,  Alexander,  12,  31  and  note,  86,  89, 
100,  114,  170,  176,  205,  215,  234,  261 
note,  273,  297,  300. 

Porson,  Richard,  277,  278. 

Poussin,  Nicolas,  97. 

Powers,  Iliram,  16. 

Prideaux,  Dr.  John,  Bishop  of  Worcester,  22. 

Prior,  Matthew,  7, 135,  136  and  note. 

Protagoras,  6. 

Prynne,  ^Villi.nm,  50. 

Psalmanazar,  George,  77. 

Pygmalion  and  Galatea,  70,  71. 


QniN,  .James,  266. 

RArnEL,  Elisabeth  F*lix,8,  9  and  note,  188. 

Rarine,  Jean,  44,  169  note,  171. 

RiidclifTe,  Dr.  John,  78. 

Raleigh,  Sir  Walter,  131  and  note. 

Raiiie,  Louise  de  la  (Ouida),  76  and  note. 

Raphael,  S.'.nzio,  122,  136,  283. 

Reni,  Guido,  95. 


308 


INDEX. 


Reynolds,  Sir  Joshua,  88,  283,  291. 

Rhoudelct,  Ur.  Guillauuie,  lltj. 

Kiclielieu,  Cardiual  Armaud  Jt-audu  Plessis, 

lUU. 
Ricuter,  Jean  Paul,  169  and  note,  228  and 

note. 
Ridley,  Nicholas,  2G9. 
Rltson,  Joseph,  171. 
Rochefoucauld,  Due  JTrauijois,  48  and  note, 

213. 
Rogers,  Samuel,  36,  39,  49,  61  note,  87,  88, 

151,  212. 
Rolaud,  Madam  Marie  Jeanne,  268. 
RoUin,  Charles,  7. 
Romney,  George,  19. 
Rosa,  Salvator,  248-250,  280. 
Roscommon,  Earl  of  (Wentworth  Dillon), 

91),  266. 
Rossini,  Gioacchimo,  14,  73,  82. 
Rousseau,  Jean  Jacques,  99,  161,  241,  266, 

283. 
Rowe,  Nicholas,  201. 
Royer-Collard,  231  note. 
Rubens,  Peter  Paul,  250,  287,  297. 
Rusard,  Peter,  33. 
Ruskin,  .Tohu,  71,  205,  215. 


Sacchini,  Antonio  Maria  Gasparo,  82. 

St.  Pierre,  de  (Jacques  Uenri  Bernardin), 

59  note. 
Salieri,  Antouio,  73. 
Sallust,  37. 

Sand,  George,  57, 136, 194,  205. 
Santara,  153. 
Sargent,  Epes,  191. 
Sarpi,  Father  Paolo,  72. 
Sarti,  Giuseppe,  73. 
Sarto,  Andrea  del,  14,  153. 
Saunders,  Chief  Justice  Sir  Edmund,  119. 
Savage,  Richard,  94,  140,  233. 
Scaliger,  Julius,  34,  94 
Schiller,  von  (Johann  Christoph  Friedrich), 

31,  72  and  note,  111,  120,  152  and  note, 

269. 
Schumann,  Robert,  133. 
Scipio,  27. 

Scipio  the  Younger,  28. 
Scott,  Sir  Walter,  7  note,  38,  43  nnte,  58, 

62,  7.5, 104,  108,  111,  114,  200.  2it7,  212, 

221,  225,  226  and  note,  242,  298. 
Scud.5ri,  George,  213. 
Scudt^ri,  Mile,  de  (Madeleine),  213  note. 
Seldon,  John,  131. 
Seneca,  118,  126. 
Seward,  Miss  Anna,  42. 


Shadwell,  Thomas,  77. 

Shakspeare,  W'm.,  2  and  note,  3, 9, 19, 29,40, 

106  note,  125,  210,  240,  265,  274,  296. 
Shaw,  Dr.,  117. 
Shelley,  Percy  Bysshe,  58,  109,  112,  114, 

172,  173  and  note,  174. 
Sherid.iu,  Richard  Briuslcy   Butler,  40,  77, 

92,  211,  226  note,  227,  229,  236,  271,  272. 
Shuter,  Edward,  264. 
Siddona,  Mrs.  Sarah,  243,  244  and  note. 
Sidney,  Sir  Philip,  230. 
Smart,  Christopher,  140, 164. 
Smith,  Adam,  94. 
Smith,  Sir  Sydney,  20,37  note,  39,  81  note, 

89,  106, 107, 197  note,  210. 
Smollett,  Tobias  George,  37,  62. 
Sneyd,  Miss  Honora,  43. 
Socrates,  33,  126,  239. 
Sophocles,  126. 
Southey,  Robert,  12,  31,  44  and  note,  104, 

138,205,208,211. 
Spaguoletto,  256-258  and  note. 
Spencer,  James,  252. 
Spencer,  William  Robert,  212. 
Spenser,  Edmund,  128,  152,  240  note,  297. 
Spoutini,  Gasparo  Luigi  Pacifico,  82. 
Stael,  Madame  de  (Anne  Louise),  39, 147. 
Steele,  Richard,  158,  202,  283. 
Stephens,  James  Francis,  76. 
Stephenson,  George,  26. 
Stepney,  George,  202. 
Sterne,  Laurence,  10,  64,  67,  270. 
Siuart,  Gilbert  Charles,  45. 
Sturgeon,  William,  23. 
Sue,  Eugene,  83,  214  and  note. 
Sumner,  Charles,  45. 

Swift,  Dean  (Jonathan)  40,  90,  98,108, 114, 
136  note,  156-158,  202  and  note,  211,  274, 

292. 
Sydenham,  Floyer,  130. 
Syrus,  Publius,  4  and  note. 


Taglioni,  Marie,  246. 

Talfourd,  Thomas  Noon,  39. 

Talma,  Francois  Joseph,  21. 

Tannahill,  Robert,  14  and  note. 

Tasso,  Torquato,  31,  40,  52,  126,  161  and 

note. 
Taylor,  Bayard,  31. 
Taylor,  Father,  107, 198. 
Taylor,  Jane,  100. 
Taylor,  Jeremy,  123,  131. 
Teil,  William, 70. 
Tencin,  Madame  de  Claudine  Alexandrine 

Gu^rin,  7  and  note. 


INDEX. 


309 


Teniers,  David,  251. 

Tenoyson,  Allred,  46, 47,  48, 108,  297. 

Tenterdea,  Justice  (Abbott),  Charles,  19. 

Terence,  5  and  note. 

Thackeray,  William   Makepeace,  24   note, 

62, 108, 109,  114,  118, 125  note,  142,  157 

and  note,  159  note,  163, 195, 197, 205. 
Theophrastus,  33. 
Thom,  William,  141. 
Thoreau,  Henry  David,  186,  187,  211. 
Thorwaldseu,  Albert  Bertel,  25. 
Thrale,   Mrs.    Esther   Lynch   (Salusbury), 

162. 
Thurlow,  Chancellor  Edward,  268. 
Titus,  Emperor,  271. 
Tooke,  Home,  17  note. 
Trenck,  Baron,  von  der  (Friedrich),  132. 
Turner,  Joseph  Mallord  William,  19,  109, 

287  note. 
Tyndale,  William,  2G9. 

Vaga,  Perius  del,  14. 

Vanderbilt,  Cornelius,  26. 

Vandyke,  Sir  Anthony,  251. 

Vaugelas,  Claude  Favre,  4!),  129, 138. 

Vayer,  La  Mothe  le,  Francois,  34. 

Vega,  Lope  de,  33,  49  and  note. 

Victor  Emmanuel,  119. 

Virgil,  52,  99. 

Voltaire,  de  (Francjois  Marie  Arouet),  88, 132, 

207,  229,  286. 
Vondel,  Joost  van  den,  15. 

Wakefield,  Gilbert,  135. 
Waller,  Edmund,  29  note,  128  note. 
Walpole,  Horace,  200. 
Walton,  Izaak,  12,  34, 152. 
Warburton,  Bishop  William,  57,  92. 


Warton,  Dr.  Joseph,  109. 
Washington,  George,  28. 
Watt,  James,  22,  29,  220,  242. 
Webster,  Daniel,  26  and  note,  45. 
Wellington,  L>uke  of,  Arthur  (Welleeley), 

9  note,  76. 
West,  Benjamin,  20  and  note,  241  and  note. 
Whipple,  Edwin  Percy,  17  note,  28  note, 

46, 103  note,  130, 165,  225,  229, 270  note, 

294. 
White,  Henry  Kirke,  11,  29. 
Whitefield,  George,  16. 
Whitney,  Eli,  22,  23. 

Whittier,  John  Greenleaf,  35,  206,212,  298. 
Wicquefort,  de  (Abraham),  132. 
Wilkes,  John,  284. 
William  of  Orange,  28  note. 
William  the  Conqueror,  119. 
Williams,  Roger,  133. 
Willis,  Nathaniel  Parker,  30,  31  note,  93, 

114,  215. 
Wilson,  Henry,  22. 
Wilson,  John,  14,  227. 
Wilson,  Richard,  96. 
Winckelmann,  34  and  note. 
Winthrop,  Robert  C,  34. 
Wither,  George,  87  and  note. 
Woffington,  Margaret  (Peg),  263,  264  and 

note. 
Wolcott,  Dr.  John,  247  note. 
Wolsey,  Cardinal  Thomas,  11, 17. 
Woodworth,  Samuel,  15. 
Wordsworth,  William,  39,  48,  53,  181, 182, 

208,  297. 
Wotton,  Henry,  106. 
Wycherly,  William,  284. 


Zoroaster,  17. 


University  Press  :  John  Wilson  &  Son,  Cambridge. 


THE  LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Santa  Barbara 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW. 


